What Facial Reshaping Procedures Can Be Done To Make My Long Face Look Shorter?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am interested in some form of facial freshaping.  I have some issues regarding a long face, and more importantly a long midface. It’s just been seriously bothering me for years to the point where it is causing problems. If you could take a look at these pics and just figure out what is so wrong with it, i would really appreciate it.

A: While I would not disagree that your face is a little long and the guilty component is your midface, there are other facial structural issues that are magnifing that impression. A horizontally short chin and a long nose with an acute nasolabial angle make the midface loo longer than it already. When you combine that with a very skeletonized face (little facial fat), the effect becomes even more so. There really are no true midface shortening procedures other than a maxillary impaction which is only used for vertical maxillary excess that has a gumkmy smile. (which does not apply to you) But what you can do is change some of the other factors that are accentuating the midface elongation effect. This includes a sliding genioplasty to bring the chin forward, a rhinoplasty to rotate the tip and decrease its length and submalar cheek augmentation to procide some more width to the midface. Together, these facial structural procedures can help shorten a long midface appearance.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana