Why Can’t I Make The Computer Imaging On My Face Look Right?

Q: I tried to do some computer imaging of my face on some programs that some plastic surgeons have but it didn’t seem to work. I just couldn’t make it look right. I am interested in jawline enhancement and facial implants and was looking for some advice. I have attached some pictures for you to review and image.

A: An increasing number of websites, plastic surgeons and otherwise,  and smartphone apps have interactive programs in which to do some of your own computer imaging of your face and body. By simply uploading a picture or two, you can do a little ‘Photoshop‘ plastic surgery. While these programs are certainly cool and fun, they are not particularly accurate. That is because of the simple fact that the ‘driver‘ has no realistic appreciation of what can really be done and what actually will happen if certain procedures are done. Only a plastic surgeon can add that missing element if one wants to make the transition from fooling around to seriously considering  becoming more than just manipulated pixels.

But there are a few patients in which even the simplest change just don’t seem to look right. That is because their facial anatomy is different and the basic rules of changes do not work well for them. That happens to be the case with you. Your underlying problem is that your lower face is too short for the rest of your face. This shortness affects both your lower and upper jaw. So when you try and just move the chin forward, it doesn’t look right. It makes the midface (upper jaw and upper lip) look retruded or back too far. That relationship would be impossible  for you as a patient to figure out. What you really need is a treatment that can move both the middle and lower third of your forward. That could be either chin and paranasal implants or orthognathic surgery that moves both the upper and lower jaws forward.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis Indiana