How Do You Get Sharper Jawline Implant Results in Thick Soft Tissues?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I have a quick question about jawline implants and thick soft tissue. If someone has thicker coverage (skin, subcutaneous fat, and masseter muscle), does reducing some of those layers improve implant definition?

Specifically:

Would masseter Botox (to slim the muscle by ~25–30%) before or after surgery help the implant show better?

If someone gets very lean and/or does submental/jawline lipo, does that significantly improve the contour, or is skin thickness still the main limiting factor?

Lastly, does skin oiliness relate to thickness, or are they unrelated?

I’m just trying to understand if these combined approaches can offset soft tissue bulk, or if thick skin always prevents a sharp result.

Thank you for your time and expertise.

A:The external appearance of a jawline implant is a reflection of numerous factors including the thickness of the overlying soft tissue. The implant design, implant size and the thickness of the overlying soft tissues are the three main variables. Implant size can overcome thicker tissues but obviously you don’t want to have patrol augmentation diamonds up being too big. As a result for most reasonably sized gel implants many patients combine soft tissue reductions of fat in the cheek and neck area to help.

When you use the term developing a sharp result by that definition usually only patients with thin overlying soft tissues can never developed that outcome. No matter what is done to the patient with thicker overlying soft tissues a true sharp result is never going to be achieved.

Dr. Barry Eppley

World-Renowned Plastic Surgeon