The left side of my jaw is very big compared to the other side. Is there anyway to fix the asymmetry of my face?

Question

Hello doctors, in the picture on the left side of my face my jaw is much bigger than the right side causing my face to be very uneven. And my left nose,smile,smile line is lifted everything else like my left eye and eyebrow droops compared to the right side. I sleep pretty evenly however I do clench my teeth really hard sometimes throughout the day and even at night when I’m sleeping. I always wake up with sore facial muscles because of it. Is there anyway to fix the unsymmetry of my face? TY!

Jeffrey H. Spiegel, MD · Answer

There is a good chance it is muscle.  If you feel that it worsens when you clench your teeth, you can see someone for botulinum into the large side.  This should quickly shrink that muscle and give you more symmetry.  If that's not enough, or it it's bone, we can adjust the bone to get it more even with a short procedure done through your mouth.

Barry L. Eppley, MD, DMD · Answer

Like almost all jaw/facial asymmetries there is a bony component to them. Your jaw asymmetry is classic in that one side is lower and wider while the other side is higher and more narrow. The differences in the position of the inferior borders of the jaw angles shows that much of this jaw asymmetry is bone. The muscle on the larger left side is bigger than that of the smaller right side.  The first place to start is to get a 3D CT scan of your face to have clear idea of the shape of all facial bones including that of the lower jaw.  Once the bony anatomy is known then how to improve it can be determined.

The left side of my jaw is very big compared to the other side. Is there anyway to fix the asymmetry of my face?

Answers (2)