Will Undereye Implants Eliminate The Creases That Form Under My Eyes When I Smile?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I have a few questions – could you please help with these?

  1. When I smile, I have creases that form under my eyes every time. Would the under-eye implants eliminate or reduce these?
  2. Is there anything that can be done to the under-eye implants to further minimize my nasolabial folds? If not, I understand, but I’ve heard of injections along the cheekbone to reduce those folds, so wondered if that was possible with the implant
  3. Is it possible to create a chin dimple with the custom jaw implant?
  4. The image that perhaps looks the strangest to me is this one (below). If I had to be critical, it makes me look a tiny bit like a witch because of how pointy the chin seems to be. Perhaps the surgery results would look better / slightly different. But a couple of related / follow up questions:
    • Is it because perhaps the chin is too narrow  / pointy from the front (needs to be wider?)
    • Is there a different procedure other than a sliding genioplasty that would split my jaw / mandible between the chin and the gonion, thus advancing the entire jaw and lower lip, and therefore make the chin less pointy but still giving better projection? I would trust Dr Eppley’s opinion if this is ill advised. My family has a big problem with double chins so wondering how to address this

5) Finally, I recognize it may be very difficult to get my facial shape to change so drastically, but I’m wondering if there’s something that can be done to approach an aesthetic closer to the image below. Is it a matter of making the cheekbones higher and the front of the face more flat? I don’t expect I can be turned into the below very easily, but just wondering if Dr Eppley has any insight if there is anything else that could be done to get closer to this.

A: In answer to your questions:

1) No. That is a dynamic issue while the implant provides static volume enhancement.

2) IOM implants will not improve nasolabial folds. This is a soft tissue issue not a bone-based one.

3) Chin dimples are muscular defects in the soft tissue chin pad, they have no bony basis for them.

4) That is an imaging artifact and not what the surgery would do.

5) You can become that picture or even close to it. All you can do is simulate the bone structure on the face you already have.

Dr. Barry Eppley

World-Renowned Plastic Surgeon