Chin implant is a safe technique, which is important and necessary to do the chin augmentation. That is why we have chosen the best materials for our implants that ensure long-term safety and outstanding results. Today there are different types of chin implants. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Especially when choosing an implant, you should focus on its ability to be absorbed by your body over time. This option significantly reduces the possibility of rejection by the immune system of your body (in most cases).
Chin implant surgery is a procedure that has been performed on millions of people around the world. It is especially popular in Asia and other parts of Asia where facial features are typically more prominent and visible. Facial features such as the chin have been seen as a mark of beauty for centuries and can contribute greatly to one’s overall appearance.
Read on to learn more about Is Chin Implant Safe, Myths About Chin Implants & Chin Augmentation
Is Chin Implant Safe
Chin enhancement surgery, also called genioplasty, improves contours of the chin, neck and jawline. Typically, surgery involves placement of an implant around a patient’s existing chin bone to augment the size and shape of the chin and achieve a more naturally attractive balance between facial features. When performed by a qualified, experienced cosmetic surgeon, chin enhancement can provide a permanent solution to improve a weak or recessed chin.
A well-defined chin helps give balance to the face and create a more striking profile. Chin augmentation using an implant is designed to improve a “weak chin” and achieve harmony to the facial appearance. But because the chin is a delicate body area, many patients wonder if operating on it is safe.
In this blog post, Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Sayah discusses the procedure and the safety of chin implants in detail.
About Chin Implants
Chin implants are made of soft silastic, a safe, silicone rubber material that has been used medically for more than 20 years. The material has been used in ear, dental and eye surgery. It has also been commonly used to make replacement heart valves, blood vessels and joints.
In chin augmentation, supportive tissue forms around the silastic implant after a few weeks. Because the silastic material feels much like natural tissue normally found in the chin, the implant will feel like your normal chin once fully healed. Implants come in a variety of shapes and sizes, allowing for custom fitting to match the patient’s facial anatomy.
About the Procedure
To begin the procedure, you will be placed under either general anesthesia or intravenous sedation to numb the chin area. Dr. Sayah will then make a small incision where the implant will be placed. The incision will be made either inside the mouth where the lower lip joins the teeth or in the small crease line under the chin. Dr. Sayah will then gently stretch the tissue to create a space where the implant will be placed. After inserting the implant, he will use sutures to close the incision. The procedure typically takes one to three hours to complete.
Recovering From Chin Augmentation
Chin implants and chin augmentation surgery are safe, but there are risks and possible complications involved, as with any surgical procedure. Because bacteria can easily accumulate in the mouth, it is crucial to follow all of Dr. Sayah’s post-op directions. The day after surgery, you should drink only clear liquids, such as water, juices, cool tea and clear broth. It is recommended you only eat soft foods during the subsequent three to five days to avoid straining your mouth and jaw areas. With proper care, a majority of the swelling goes down two weeks after surgery, and most patients begin to see a more well-defined chin four to six weeks after the procedure.
Why consider getting a chin implant?
If you are bothered by your recessed or “weak” chin, or you feel your facial features lack proportion, chin implant surgery can help you feel more confident in your appearance. Specifically, chin augmentation can:
- Improve facial harmony by bringing chin into better proportion with other features
- Correct a weak or recessed chin
- Improve definition of the neck and jawline
- Help reduce the appearance of a full or “double” chin caused by a small chin bone
Myths About Chin Implants & Chin Augmentation
1. Chin Augmentation is a High-Risk Procedure
Chin augmentation or chin implantation is a minimally invasive surgical procedure and by no means is considered high-risk.
It can add prominence to the chin to help achieve better harmony of the facial features.
The procedure is quick, taking less than one hour to perform, and involves the insertion of a facial implant into the chin area.
This is a relatively safe procedure with low complication rates — especially if the procedure is done by an experienced facial plastic surgeon.
As with any operation, there are always risks of infection, bleeding, or poor healing — however, these complications are rare in chin implant surgeries at The Williams Center for Facial Surgery.
If you are interested in seeing how the procedure is done, you can view surgical footage of a chin augmentation using a Gore-Tex implant that was performed at The Williams Center.
2. Everyone Will Notice That I Had a Chin Augmentation
In the hands of an experienced facial plastic surgeon, this is simply not true.
Prior to going to the operating room, our doctors and staff sit down with patients to discuss goals and expectations.
Our main goal is to give patients a natural look that only enhances their existing features.
We use imaging software to give patients a preview of their results so that we are all in agreement on the aesthetic result we are trying to achieve.
Regarding the procedure itself, many people ask, “But won’t I have a scar?”
It is true that a small incision is made underneath the chin in order to insert the implant. This incision, however, is inconspicuous and hard to find once it has healed.
And the implants themselves are soft and feel the same as a normal chin. These implants are typically tapered to mimic the natural shape of a chin.
Some of our happiest patients are our postoperative chin augmentation patients because we can create a dramatic — but natural — result with such a simple procedure.
3. You Can’t Receive a Chin Implant at the Same Time as Other Procedures
It is often recommended to receive a chin implant procedure in combination with other facial procedures. Many patients who go forward with a rhinoplasty or facelift also desire a chin augmentation.
For example, when our facial plastic surgeons assess a patient’s profile before a facelift, one of our biggest goals is to create an aesthetically appealing cervicomental angle or the angle created between the neck and the chin. If patients have a small or receding chin, a chin implant complements the facelift and can really improve the results.
Similar to a facelift, in rhinoplasty, the entire face — not just the nose — is taken into account when deciding what changes to make. If the patient has a receding chin, augmentation with an implant can enhance the rhinoplasty result and promote harmony between the facial features.
Combination procedures such as these are commonly performed, and there are no issues with doing them together. In fact, completing dual procedures at one time means just one instance of anesthesia. However, if you decide not to go forward with a chin implant at the time of another surgery, you can absolutely come back at another time.
There will be no issue waiting for the chin implant procedure for a later time if that is what you prefer.
4. Chin Implants are Unsafe
The materials used to make chin implants are very safe and have been rigorously studied.
The most common material used is silicone — we prefer to use Gore-Tex-covered silicone implants, as these implants tend to not form a capsule, or scar tissue, around the implant. Plain silicone implants are more prone to capsule formation.
In addition, due to the unique properties of the Gore-Tex coating, it anchors more firmly to the surrounding tissue, resulting in a more natural feel.
Infections from these chin implants are uncommon and we rarely see them at our practice.
5. You Can’t Have a Chin Implant Removed
In experienced hands, the implant rarely must be removed or replaced.
However, if it does have to be removed, one of the advantages of using the Gore-Tex implant is that, as mentioned above, it anchors into surrounding tissue, but there is no capsule formation.
This means that it can be more easily removed than a plain silicone implant, if removal is necessary.
THE PROBLEM WITH CHIN IMPLANTS
CHIN IMPLANTS MAY BE A POPULAR CHOICE FOR CHIN SURGERY BUT REMOVING THEM IS ALSO ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR REVISION SURGERIES THAT WE PERFORM.
Chin implants are typically used in chin surgery (genioplasty) to improve a “weak” or nonexistent chin, or within the context of Asian V-Line surgery. The popularity of chin implants has grown over the last few years and has become one of the fastest growing procedures in plastic surgery. Unfortunately, chin revision surgery (revision genioplasty) is also one of the most popular revision surgeries we perform due to the often unsatisfactory results or resultant medical complications of using chin implants.
CHIN IMPLANTS ARE PROBLEMATIC AND OFTEN CAUSE COMPLICATIONS.
Although chin implants are an option in some cases, and occasionally used, we believe that placing a foreign object (an implant) into your own body is counterintuitive and often problematic when there are much better ways to reshape and augment the chin.
Often chin implants are placed by inexperienced or unskilled surgeons and sold to the patient as an “inexpensive” or simple solution. This, of course, is so often untrue, due to the frequency of need for chin surgery revision procedures! Instead of one operation, the patient needs another one — often at an increased cost because a secondary procedure is always more complex than a primary one — not to mention the suffering, stress and mental anguish over the first, failed procedure.
CHIN IMPLANTS OFTEN CAUSE COMPLICATIONS, WITH THE MOST COMMON BEING:
- The implant shifting from its original location,
- The implant eroding into the roots of the anterior teeth,
- And, most commonly a squaring of the chin which in females, in particular, can have an undesired masculinizing effect that is altogether unsatisfactory.
It is our belief, that a far better option in our experience, is to reshape the underlying skeleton or foundation of the chin by altering or repositioning the bone. In fact, there are several non-implant options for genioplasty surgery: the chin may be moved forward, down, centered, widened, or narrowed — depending on the desired outcome. In these cases, outcomes are improved because there are more “degrees of freedom” for the surgeon to reshape the chin into an aesthetically pleasing shape that is in harmony with other facial features.
THE RISKS, COMPLICATIONS AND SIDE EFFECTS OF CHIN IMPLANTS.
Apart from the obvious risk of choosing an unskilled or inexperienced surgeon to insert a chin implant – that the aesthetic result will not be a satisfactory one – there are several other serious medical complications and side effects to be aware of:
- Damage to the marginal mandibular nerve — leading to permanent loss of movement in the lower lip
- Damage to the mental nerve (a sensory nerve which provides sensation to the front of the chin and lower lip as well as the buccal gingivae of the mandibular anterior teeth and the premolars)
- Implant is placed in the superficial tissues — not under the periosteum (the dense layer of vascular connective tissue enveloping the bones) leading to implant movement under the skin
- The wrong sized chin implant is used resulting in a chin looks out of sync or inharmonious with other facial features
- Injury or damage to the teeth, gums, or surrounding nerves
- Permanent loss of sensation, and/or scarring.
- Slow healing, infection, or internal bleeding leading to removal of implant
- Inadvertent masculinization of the female chin
- Unsightly deepening of the labiomental crease (the deep groove underneath the lower lip)