Chin Augmenation / Chin Implants

Chin augmentation involves enlarging a weak chin in order to better balance the facial profile and enhance facial aesthetics. A weak or underprojecting chin can give an unattractive appearance. Due to imbalance of the upper to lower face, a weak or underprojecting chin can give the appearance that the nose I too big for the face and often people seek reduction in nose size (rhinoplasty) when really the chin is a major contributing factor of their concerns.

A weak chin is usually due to relative underdevelopment of the lower jaw and this is often associated with mal-occlusion or non alignment of the lower and upper teeth such that the lower teeth don’t come forward enough to fit with the upper teeth in the normal way. When this problem is corrected with jaw surgery by moving the lower jaw forward, the chin is automatically brought forward as well and the weak chin issue solved. Usually, however, at an early age, orthodondics or braces is used to tilt the bottom teeth forward and the weak chin problem persists.

Weakness of the chin may cause concern because

• it looks unattractive
• the nose looks too big for the face
• the neck line is poorly defined
• the balance of the face isn’t right

Chin augmentation addresses these concerns and improves often dramatically facial aesthetics.

Chin augmentation is OFTEN done with rhinoplasty.

Chin augmentation can be done in two main ways, chin implant and sliding genioplasty.

Chin Implant

This is the simplest way of doing chin augmentation. It is suitable for achieving more gentle or less dramatic augmentation. The implant is inserted onto the surface of the jaw bone lower rim either via the mouth or from an incision under the chin. The best material to use is rigid porous polyurethane (plastic) which is fixed to the bone so it won’t move.

Sliding Genioplasty

The other way to achieve a more dramatic chin augmentation is to move the bone of the rim of the lower jaw forward. Via an incision in the mouth, a cut is made in the bone and the chin point slid forward and fixed with screws. This has the advantage not only of a more dramatic augmentation but also allows lengthening in height of the chin. Because the patients own bone is used to augment rather than plastic, it is a stronger and more stable augmentation and avoids possible complications of a plastic implant.