If You’re Considering Facial Implants
Plastic surgeons use facial implants to improve and enhance facial contours. These implants can bring the face into balance by building up the chin, the cheeks, or the jaw. There are many facial implants available, manufactured from a variety of materials. They can help strengthen a jawline or bring the chin or cheekbones into balance with the rest of the face.
This web page describes some of the facial implants currently available as well as the techniques for their use. It will familiarize you with these procedures but cannot provide all the details which may be relevant to your particular needs.
If you feel that one or more of the procedures described here may benefit you, be sure to ask your plastic surgeon for more information.
What to Expect From a Facial Implant
Facial implants can enhance your appearance and bolster your self esteem. If you are looking for improvement, not perfection, in your appearance and are realistic in your expectations, you may find that a facial implant is the right choice for you.
Plastic surgeons will frequently use such implants to bring better balance to the features of a younger patient. For instance, a teenage girl may want her nose reshaped or her chin brought forward so that these traits are better proportioned. The more mature patient may choose to have an implant placed in conjunction with another cosmetic procedure. For example, during a facelift, a patient may wish to have implants placed over the cheekbones to help restore a more youthful appearance. Implants may also be selected to fill out a face that appears “sunken” or tired.
Chin Surgery
Chin surgery (often called mentoplasty or genioplasty), is a surgical procedure to reshape the chin. This can be accomplished in several ways. Your plastic surgeon may recommend enhancement with a facial implant or surgical reshaping of the chin bone.
The general goal of cosmetic chin surgery is to provide a harmonious balance to your chin and facial features so that you feel better about the way you look.
Many times a plastic surgeon may recommend chin surgery to a patient having nose surgery in order to achieve facial proportion, as the size of the chin may magnify or minimize the perceived size of the nose.
With a short incision under the chin or inside the mouth, your plastic surgeon can place a chin implant directly on the bone.
Insertion of a chin implant may take anywhere from 30 minutes to one hour. Before the surgery, your plastic surgeon selects the proper size and shape implant to enhance your appearance. He or she then inserts it into a pocket over the front of the jawbone. The small incision to create the pocket and insert the implant is placed inside the mouth (along the lower lip) or in the skin just under the chin area.
Recovering from Chin Surgery
After chin augmentation, the chin is taped to minimize swelling and discomfort. Sutures in the skin will be removed in five to seven days. If an intra-oral incision is used, the sutures will dissolve.
