Will Bimax Surgery Give Better Defined Jaw Angles?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I have lip incompetence, and I think I have Long Face Syndrome. I assume the cause of the lip incompetence is due to my allergies. I have a really long philtrum (about an inch long) What is the solution to this? I don’t think I have an overbite or a gummy smile. 

How would I go about on fixing my face? Would IMDO or bimax fix it? 

Is it possible to do 20-30 degree CCW of bimaxillary rotation to get to the ideal gonial angle of 128 degrees? 

A: With no x-rays and one partial full face picture I can only make incompletely informed comments:

1) Your lip incompetence is not due to allergies, it is due to a very short chin/lower jaw. At the least a sliding genioplasty of double digits is needed.

2) A long upper lip can only be reduced by a subnasal lip lift. No form of upper jaw shortening/impaction will make the upper lip length any shorter.

3) Orthognathic surgery (bimax aurgery) never creates any improvement in the gonial angles and in many cases actually makes it worse. Jaw angle shape changes can only be done with implants.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana