Your Questions

Q: Dr. Eppley, first thank you for offering such great jaw angle and chin implant surgery to patients. I have found your website on the internet, as I have been looking for Medpor RZ angle implants and chin implants for years and I definitely intend to do that surgery. Of course a final recommendation can only be done personally in your office, but I would be very thankful for your first indication based on a picture of my current jaw line and chin position attached. 

My initial questions prior to the surgery would be:

1. JAW ANGLES:

a. Which Medpor RZ angle implant size would you suggest to achieve a projection like on the celebrity pictures and my computer animated picture, assuming that I augmented my cheek and cheekbone prior to the jaw implant surgery? 7mm or 11mm or 11mm shaved down to 9mm?

b. What is the horizontal width of the 7mm and 11mm Medpor RZ mandibular angle implants?

2. CHIN: which mm size of the chin implant would you suggest for a masculine chin projection, 6mm or 8mm?

A: In answer to your questions:

1) The vast majority of jaw angle implants rarely need to be more than 7mm. An 11mm implant, when both sides are factored in, increases the bigonial width by 22mm which is considerable. The numbers 3, 7 and 11mms refers to the width or horizontal dimensions of the implant. It is a standard 10mm vertical drop with these style of jaw angle implants.

2) I would have to see your pictures and see what degree of chin horizontal shortness you have, but generally 8mms is going to be a better choice than 6mms for most men.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana

Q: Dr. Eppley, I have an acquaintance who recommends your work and I very much look forward to seeing your ‘predict my face’ response and getting work done in the near future. I am looking to significantly increase the masculinity of my face by doing dramatic work on my jaw, chin, and lower third of my face. I am looking for the classic, masculine hollywood jawline. I also seem to be carrying some buccal fat that’s obscuring my jawline and cheekbone structure. I was wondering if you feel that if I lost some significant body fat if I would look noticeably better.

A: I have done some imaging based on chin and jawline/angle changes I believe you are looking for which is a more pronounced jawline from one side to the other. You do have a horizontally short chin with some vertical deficicieny as well. Because of your ethnicity, you do have larger masseter muscles and adequate vertical jaw angle length. In the imaging I have done the changes that I think will result from a square chin implant (8 to 10mms in projection) and 7mm lateral jaw angle implants. In an ideal world the chin and jaw angle implants would be connected as a solid implant but that would require custom implants made off of a 3-D model. In lieu of that effort, a three-piece off-the-shelf implant approach could be used. The fundamental difference between the two approaches is that there would not be a smooth and built-out jawline between the chin and the jaw angles.

Lastly, I would agree that a buccal lipectomy would be a nice complement to the jawline changes as it provides a concave facial contour between the cheek and the jawline…a classic male model look if you will.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis,Indiana