How Can I Fix My Chin Implant Nerve Pain?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am having paying following a revision chin implant surgery I had 5 months ago. I have a small silicone implant with wings. I believe the chin implant is slightly skewed to the right after rolling over onto my side in my sleep a week after surgery. The implant is visually just slightly crooked, almost not noticeable. I would say aesthetically, it looks alright, just slightly crooked and good projection from the side.

However, I am having an increasing amount of nerve pain at the lower right side of my chin, where the “point” of the implant is skewed to. I have a small implant, though I am not sure what mm it is. This pain has been sharp and increasing in the amount of times I feel it as time goes on. It started about a month or so after surgery, when swelling started to go down.

Before this, I had a small silicone implant with no wings placed 6.5 years ago, and it became dislodged to high after a fall a few weeks after surgery. The implant was uncomfortable and noticeable too high, which I eventually wanted to get replaced. Though, now my replacement is causing a new kind of uncomfortable pain.

I would like to either have the chin implant revised again, or completely be removed and be done with this once and for all. I am worried about chin ptosis upon removal, so I wanted to talk through my options with an experienced surgeon like yourself. I have provided photos of my revised chin causing nerve pain with a little drawing showing where the nerve pain is happening.

A: Your nerve pain indicates, with an extended anatomic chin implant, that its wing is impinging on the mental nerve. This can be proven by a 3D CT scan. The longer you leave the nerve impinged the less likely it will recover once the compression is removed.

The logical approach is to take the chin implant you have, remove its wings, and center it with screw fixation.

Chin implants don’t move or migrate when they screwed down.

Dr. Barry Eppley

World-Renowned Plastic Surgeon