Can My Chin Ptosis Be Improved By Muscle Resuspension?

Q: Dr. Eppley, Hello, I am looking for information on chin ptosis surgery.I have had a number of chin and jaw surgeries and currently have a sliding genioplasty plus an implant on top. I now have bad lower lip incompetence and chin ptosis. From my understanding, the muscle needs to be resuspended and fixated to the chin bone/implant. I included some scans of my chin as it is right now.

A: Given the chin surgeries you have had I would doubt that ‘simple’ muscle resuspension would be effective at all. You have to be mindful that the two surgeries you have had intraoral sliding genioplasty and presumably an external submental incision for placement of the custom jaw implant have completely stripped off all soft tissue attachments AND expanded the chin tissues. Besides the scarring there is now a relative discrepancy  between the expanded structural support and the soft tissues needed to cover it. As a result the soft  tissues are not going to elevate in any significant amount and most certainly won’t improve lip incompetence. Ljke most soft tissue retractions this is a tissue deficiency problem and thus tissue rearrangement alone will likely fail.

Dr. Barry Eppley

World-Renowned Plastic Surgeon