What Type Of Chin Reshaping Procedure Do I Need To Change A Wide Square Chin?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am interested in a chin reshaping/chin reduction procedure. My chin is fairly square and big and I feel very insecure about it. It’s not big to the point where it’s the first thing people notice, but I hate it so much and I think it makes my otherwise feminine face look disproportionate. What can be done to reshape a chin? It seems to be one plastic surgery procedure where very little is written about it and very few plastic surgeons actually do it. How is it done and what is the recovery like?

A: There are numerous option in chin reshaping/reduction surgery. Your chin is wide and square for your face and even maybe a bit vertically long. It does not appear to be to protrusive or horizontally long which is a key feature that affects how chin reshaping is done. .Your chin can be reshaped to be slightly shorter and more narrow through an intraoral genioplasty approach. From inside the mouth, the bone is cut, like a sliding genioplasty, and narrowed and then put back together, thus leaving no external incisional scars. This will create a more tapered chin that is more triangular shaped rather than square as it is now. Any bony chin surgery is associated with a fair amount of swelling that will take about three weeks to enter the benefits phase and a full six weeks to see the final result.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana