What Is The Best Way To Do A Chin Reduction To Make My Chin More Narrow And Tapered?

Q: I am a male to female transsexual and need some facial changes as part of the process. My chin is too male looking with a prominent chin cleft and it is very wide. It is too wide and prominent for my face which i am trying to make more feminine and slender. I need my chin cleft removed and the width of the chin corrected by burring it down from inside the mouth.

A: In trying to achieve a more feminine looking chin, your aesthetic goals are correct but the method to get there is not the best way. Simple intraoral burring of the chin can only make a minimal narrowing effect and, if done aggressively, will like result in soft tissue sagging problems. The best approach to really narrow and taper the bony chin is through the use of an osteotomy. By doing a horizontal chin osteotomy, the downfractured segmented can be split in the middle and a center segment of chin bone removed. It can then be put back together with the entire chin significantly narrowed and with a much better tapered look to it. The chin soft tissues can then be better suspended with no risk of soft tissue sag (witch’s chin deformity) afterwards. This will also provide a better means of muscle tightening and soft tissue fill of the chin cleft to create a better chin cleft soft tissue reduction. While this sounds complicated, it is just a simple variation of the traditional chin osteotomy technique. (genioplasty without the side)

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis Indiana