Has my chin implant shifted and is revision needed? Just got a CAT scan and am sending to my Dr., as he thinks its fine. (photo)

Question

I had my chin implant done about 4-5 years ago. I believe the implant is silicone and was not secured. It was placed from under my chin. I recently noticed a weird feeling and a bump in my gums/lip area and realized the implant or wing had shifted. It has been this way for several years, but I just now noticed. The surgeon said that surgery is too complicated and that my face is already asymmetrical. He basically said I look fine from the outside and nobody will be looking that close. Advice?!

Francis R. Palmer, III, MD (retired) · Answer

Hi, I have performed many facial shaping procedures, including Chin Augmentation with dermal fillers or silastic chin implants, for over 30 years.  Some additional information would be helpful but you shouldn't be able to feel the implant along the lower gum line.  The wings (sides) of the implant should be along the lower edges of the jaw line.  The implant sticker information will provide the make, material, size and shape of the implant.  Ask the doctor that did the scan to adjust the setting so the silastic implant appears more opaque in the scan.  This will reveal the shape, size and positioning.  If this is a silastic chin implant, it should be able to be removed and replaced quite easily through a small, incision under the chin using a local anesthetic.   When the chin is weak, this creates an imbalance making the nose appear larger, the mid face top heavy, the lower face looks short, de-emphasizes the lips and allows early formation of a "double chin".  
 Proper placement of a silastic chin implant adds forward projection to the chin thereby creating harmony and balance to the lower face.  Using the same incision, liposuction can be performed to reduce the fat and further shape the neck.  Excess skin, from below the chin, can also be removed through the same incision.  
 I have found that placement of a silastic chin implant, through a small curved incision under the chin (also allows excess skin removal) to be very safe, quick, highly effective and far less invasive than a sliding genioplasty (requires extensive tissue dissection, bone cuts and placement of metal screws and plates to secure the cut segments of bone).  I perform chin implant surgery in 30 minutes or less, often using a local anesthetic alone.  In my opinion, you are a good candidate for chin implant surgery.  
 In my opinion and experience there is no need to secure a silastic chin implants with sutures and screws when the following conditions are met:
 * Select a silastic chin implant (I prefer the EAC) that doesn't have too much projection (thickness) as this becomes a problem stabilizing the implant under the periosteum when the implant is too thick.
 * Place the implant through a small curved incision under the chin which allows direct access to the periosteum (under the mentalis muscle) while preserving the muscle attachments.  This prevents upward migration of the implant which can occur when the intra-oral approach is used that severs the muscle attachments.
 * While the center or body of the chin implant should be placed at a perpendicular angle the chin bone in order to provide the proper forward projection to the chin, the "wings" of the implant should be at a lower level and follow the inferior (bottom) edge of the jaw line on either side of the chin.  When properly dissected and placed, this will be below the mental nerve foramen and be just wide enough of a dissection to accommodate the tapering wing.  There isn't enough room in this technique to allow the wings to migrate upward and contact the mental nerve.  In contrast if the dissection, along the sides of the chin (jaw line) are performed too high...this will place the mental nerve in danger and if the side dissection is too wide, the wings will have a space within which to migrate upward.
 * We have all of our chin implant patients avoid touching and feeling their chin implant for 1 month post op.  We also ask that they sleep on a U-shaped airline pillow for the same time.
  Our experience when following the technique described above is that the silastic chin implant does not need to be secured with sutures or screws and does not move.  I have placed silastic chin implants in military, SWAT, LE, professional fighters, as well as actors and many regular people who are active.  In addition, I have had the opportunity on numerous occasions to replace silastic chin implants (placed by others) that had been screwed into the bone.  During the replacement it was evident that the metal screws pushed right through the soft silastic implant as it was tightened down on the hard chin bone.  Which makes perfect sense.  So in the long run, these fixation methods alone are no guarantee that the implant won't move.  Proper placement, proper implant pocket creation and meticulous closure of all the tissues layers is what is required in my humble opinion.
 I prefer placement of a  silastic chin implant through a small, curved incision under the chin (submental) instead of through the mouth for the following reasons:
*The submental approach is sterile while the intra-oral approach is not.
*The submental approach requires limited dissection as it is much closer to where the chin implant needs to be placed along the center (front) and lower most sections of the chin on each side (where the wings are placed).  The intra-oral approach by contrast requires dissection all the way down the entire section of the chin in order to reach the same areas for chin implant placement.  This leads to several issues in my humble opinion.  The attachment of the chin muscle to the bone must be cut during the tissue dissection, the sensory nerves (mental) and motor nerves (marginal mandibular nerve) that move the muscles of the lips and mouth) are all in much greater jeopardy of injury because of the added dissection required.
*The added areas of dissection with the intra oral approach allows upward migration of the implant as well as an increased risk of nerve injury.  Damage to a sensory nerve will create numbness and or an ache type discomfort while injuring the motor nerve will result in an inability to "lower" the corner of the mouth and lower lip.  While some of these symptoms can rarely be experienced in the immediate post op period as the mentalis muscle accommodates the chin implant....these symptoms should be gone within a few weeks post op.
 There are numerous shapes and sizes of silastic chin implants, some of which are rather old shapes that do not yield the desired "natural" aesthetic results.  The Curvilinear shape is an example that is similar to the old "button" implants (had no wings or lateral tapering elements of the newer EAC design) that created a "pharaoh" shaped chin.  The EAC or extended anatomical chin implant style offers, in my experience and humble opinion, the most natural, aesthetic result when augmenting the chin.  The EAC in a size small is the most common implants that I use in women ( size medium in men ).  Proper placement and the appropriate approach (placing the incision under the chin and not inside the mouth) are also key to obtaining the best aesthetic result.Hope this helps.

Val Lambros, MD, FACS (retired) · Answer

the ct shows that the implant has shifted considerably.  the pocket just needs to be re-established on the flatter side and the chin implant moved to the center and fixed with a stitch or a screw. Not complicated

Has my chin implant shifted and is revision needed? Just got a CAT scan and am sending to my Dr., as he thinks its fine. (photo)

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Everything you need to know about Chin Implant

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Has my chin implant shifted and is revision needed? Just got a CAT scan and am sending to my Dr., as he thinks its fine. (photo)

Answers (2)

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Everything you need to know about Chin Implant

Our mission is to create a world where every investment in modern beauty is Worth It.