Does A Jumping Genioplasty Have Less Bony Stepoffs Than A Sliding Genioplasty?

Q: Dr. Eppley, If I were to do jumping genioplasty instead of sliding genioplasty would you still use bone chips to fill the ‘dead space’ and would the step-offs become less noticeable as the bone remodels? And could the bone cut be made low to keep the vertical shortening in the 2-4mm range? 

Just curious because I like that jumping genioplasty maintains chin width and decreases height at the same time while using your own bone.

A: By definition a jumping genioplasty takes the whole chin bone and sticks it on the front edge of the bone above it. This creates two adverse effects…1) the bony stepoff becomes greater (more severe) and the space between it and the incision prevents any contouring with bone chips and 2) the amount of vertical shortening becomes much greater which is basically the height of the bone below the bone cut. (10mms or more) While the bone cut can be made a bit lower it would not be in the 2 to 4mm range.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana