Jawline Asymmetry Implant

Q: Dr. Eppley, I’ve attached a few photos of my face/jaw. I would describe it as one side of my jaw being longer than the other and where the two halves meet at my chin, there’s a sort of deviation to one side. I’m curious what kind of effect an implant placed over my jaw/chin could achieve.

A: Thank you for sending your pictures. You do have a jawline asymmetry and the deviation of the chin reflects how one side is different than the other. Such jawline asymmetries would traditionally be difficult to make a lot better because ‘spot’ reduction or augmentations along the jawline by just using he surgeon’s eye/judgment often ends up magnifying the problem rather than improving it. A better approach for jawline asymmetries that are not going to be managed by orhognathic surgery is a custom jawline implant. A custom jawline offers the best approach because it creates an outer zone of augmentation that is symmetric on both sides (and straightens the chin) and then it just matches the asymmetric jawline bone underneath it. Thus it is based on creating an outer jawline symmetry first (as well as whatever jawline augmentation the patient desires) and then makes it match its underlying asymmetric bone.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana