Jawline Asymmetry

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am interested in correcting my jawline asymmetry.  I’ve always hated taking pictures head on or from the right side of my face because of the asymmetry of my chin and the angle of my jaw on the right side. It’s almost as if my jaw has shifted down and has caused my chin to shift and protrude forward on one side.  This has been the case for as long as I can remember and I almost feel as if it’s getting worse. Probably because my skin is thinning and I can see the outline of the chin a little more. I’ve never had any dental issues or braces and no dentist has ever told me my bite needed to be corrected. I just wanted to find out my options-and see if this was actually possible to fix. Thank you so much in advance!

A: Thank you for sending your pictures and describing your lower jawline asymmetry concerns. What you have is an overgrowth of the right lower jaw that makes the jaw angle slightly bigger,  the right jawline lower and the chin shift to the left. Usually with such jaw overgrowth there would be associated bite and occlusal plane asymmetry…but you seem to have largely avoided that typical accompanying issue. The treatment would be one of a chin and jawline bone shave from the left side of the chin all the way back to the jaw angle. This would be done through a submental incision approach. The amount of bone to remove would be determined from a simple panorex x-ray based on millimeter comparative measurements of he height of the mandible from midline chin to the ramus.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Inianaopolis, Indiana