What Is The Cause of Chin Tightness After A Sliding Genioplasty That Got Worse After Working Out?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I had a genioplasty with you last summer. Since then I have had tightness in the right side of my chin. The tightness was mild and was progressively getting better each month.

A few weeks ago, the tightness was the worse it had been since I got the procedure. And almost every day it gets worse. Today is one of the worse days and the scarring is also more prominent. I also feel dryness in my lips as if I need to moisturize it.

This started the day I did a hard workout for the first time since the surgery. I don’t understand how a cardio workout would cause this so I don’t know if the two are related.

Is there any cause to be concerned?

A: Thank for what is now an eight  month followup. Your description of symptoms (tightness) this delayed after surgery is not one I have heard before nor the correlation with a typical workout. Thus I can not say why you have it and whether it will persist. But what I do know is that much healing has occurred since your sliding geniopaosty surgery including bone healing and I would not have any concerns about any problems with the surgical site in terms of infection or some impairment of the complete healing process. I suspect this tightness will become a self-resolving problem in a matter of a few more weeks or months. If not let me know and we can always check an x-ray to see what it looks like on the inside. It is also possible to inject some steroid intraorally see if it will make it better.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana