Chin Augmentation/Buccal

While the chin implant wasn’t completely what I wanted I had accepted that I still liked the added projection more than none at all. That is I did until the appearance continued to become more off and a pain/discomfort did not go away as the months passed.

***It’s been well over half a year since the surgery and I still occasionally feel soreness on the left side of my chin. I can’t even rest my face on my hand because there’s this odd feeling of it being off along with some discomfort/pain. It’s not a sharp pain more like a nasty bruise that won’t heal. The area can’t tolerate pressure, and occasionally the left side aches. I can distinctly feel the implant on my left side and I’m pretty sure the end of left side of the implant is shorter than the right [one of several reason why I believe the implant moved]. On the left side it feels like there’s a lump on top of my jawbone.

Aesthetically while in a flat profile it looks nice the groove between my lip and chin is very large and casts a deep shadow. Even in direct lighting the space between the chin implant and my face is apparent.

Dr. Elam recognized that my jaw is asymmetrical before the surgery, but when I called him about these still present issues he implied that it was my fault/ I should have known having asymmetry would cause complications and kept telling me I should just stop touching in a tone one would use to tell a kid to stop touching a bug bite.
[While he mentioned in the preop appointment my asymmetry he in no way said that it could result in issue or discuss any plans to keep something from occurring]
I tried to explain that the pain isn’t from me touching the site of the implant, but he was fairly dismissive. He said I would only have to pay for room and anesthesia, but just that costs ~$2,500. That’s price is still half of what I paid when I first got the two surgeries back in January.

He ended the call telling me to call back when I’m close to a month I have free to schedule the surgery and he would fit me in... I don’t really know how I feel about that.

Michael Elam didn’t seem interested in:
-getting scans done to see how the implant currently is positioned
-asking me questions to understand what happened to the implant
-if a different size is needed
-if screws are needed to keep the implant from moving again

Elam just talked about getting another surgery to reposition the current implant.

Hello,
So glad to finally see a significant reduction in swelling! The bruising is minimal and the the soreness in my cheek muscle has improved greatly. Unfortunately, I still have to wait another week before returning to the gym. I love seeing the difference between the before and week 2 post op pictures I made. I like the difference I see in my chin, though you can see how there is still some swelling on one side of my chin and cheek. My smile is a little asymmetrical, but as you can see in the before it has never been even.
Feel free to ask questions and I’ll try to upload a 1 and 3 month post op update.

Hello,

This took a while to get around to but anyways here it is: During week one I gained most of the sensation in my upper lip with about 80% control back, but the lower lip is still a bit weaker. I’m genuinely glad that sensation is returned to the chin area in phases as I’ve honestly had no pain to my chin. Now outside of this area I have had some occasional soreness for a few of my incisors (IDK why) and the masseter muscle on my left side has been very tender. The buccal fat is still very swollen but I’m noticing some thinning in cheek mass though it’s far more noticeable on my right.

It has been a week now since op there are some differences, but I am still very swollen. The bruising is lighter than I assumed it would be, but certainly obvious up close, especially around the jowl area, one dot like bruise in the center of my chin, and at the incision sight. It probably would be easy to hide but I don’t really bother with foundation. I had the week post visit where the doctor removed the stitches and placed a skin tape on the area. Skin tape helps with more smooth healing and stays on usually between 7-10 days. The entire visit took maybe 15 minutes from start to end.