How Can I Restore The Shape Of My Chin After Chin Reduction Surgery?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I previously had chin reduction surgery, which left my chin too short and pointy, especially when I smile. To improve it temporarily, I had fat grafting and filler placed in my chin area about 2 years ago. While that helped a bit, my chin still looks short and feels unnatural, and I would like to restore its original shape through reverse genioplasty or a custom chin implant, depending on what you think is best.

A: To restore the shape of the chin after a reduction performed by a t-shaped bony genioplasty there are two options:

1) Recut the chin bone to shorten it and widen (it was narrowed by a central wedge if bone removal and extend down a bit longer) it which will need at least some cadaveric bone graft to do so.

2) custom chin implant

If you look at the dimensional changes needed (wider and shorter) it would seem that doing #1 is more appropriate since an implant can not make the chin shorter only wider.

Dr. Barry Eppley

World-Renowned Plastic Surgeon