Cosmetic Chin Surgery

If you have been debating about whether or not you should have cosmetic chin surgery, you should know that plastic surgeons can use implants to improve and enhance your chin. Do you want to strengthen your jaw line, align your chin or bring your cheekbones into balance with the rest of your face? If you are looking for an improvement and not perfection in the way that you look and have realistic expectations, then a chin implant will work for you.

Be very concise about your expectations when you discuss your surgery with your plastic surgeon. Your plastic surgeon can give you a realistic view of what an implant can do for you. If you have pictures of people who have the chin features that you'd like, be sure to bring them to your plastic surgeon before your surgery.

Your plastic surgery may be done on an outpatient basis, but some implants require that you stay overnight. You may only need a local anesthetic combined with a sedative depending on the type of facial implant that you are having done. But for the most part a general anesthesia is performed.

Chin Implant

For a chin implant your surgeon will make a small incision on the front of your jawbone to create a pocket and insert the implant. This procedure takes about 20 minutes. After your surgery you will have some swelling and some discomfort that may last for several days. You may have a hard time smiling and talking. After your surgery you will receive special instructions on dental hygiene, eating and activity restrictions.

Chin Liposuction

If you have a double chin, excessive fat at the bottom of your face, you can get rid of it by a cosmetic surgery technique called liposuction. Liposuction is usually performed under local anesthesia and sedation. Correction of a double chin is either performed as a cosmetic treatment the same time as a face lift or can be done alone.

The Procedure

The skin incisions that at one time were extremely long when you had liposuction are a thing of the past, now they are very tiny and heal quickly. Small incisions are possible because newer liposuction instruments have become quite miniscule in diameter. In addition, most, or even all, of the incisions are placed where they are very difficult to spot. The liposuction instrument is called a cannula. For chin and neck liposuction, the cannula is usually less than 2mm in diameter which means that is not much larger than the lead from a #2 pencil that your child uses in school.

A local anesthetic is used with tumescent technique liposuction and there is very little bleeding as well as less trauma to the tissues. Recovery is very rapid after eliminating a double chin when tumescent technique liposuction is used. So, this technique has become the treatment of choice for eliminating double chin, that is, deposits of fat under the chin.