- Procedure time
- 20 to 45 minutesOperative time
- Anesthesia
- IV sedation
- Setting
- Our procedure suiteHome the same day
- Downtime
- Ten days to two weeksSutures out at day ten
- Results last
- Typically permanentThe tissue over it still ages
The complaint that is not about the neck
“Fullness under my chin” is one of the most common things patients arrive with, and a proportion of the time the fullness is a geometry problem rather than a tissue problem. When the chin sits back, the distance from jaw to neck is short, and short reads as full.
Operating on that neck treats the symptom and leaves the cause.
Balance, not size
The goal is proportion relative to your own features — the projection that makes your jawline read as defined and your profile as balanced. It is a small change measured in millimeters and a large change in how the lower face is perceived.
How I place the implant
I use an implant, and I place it through a small incision under the chin, hidden in the submental crease. Through it I release the soft tissue off the bone and seat a Silastic implant against it.
The implants I use are Implantech extended anatomical. What makes them worth naming is the lateral extensions, which carry into the pre-jowl area. Where that region is deficient, and it often is, you get improvement along the jawline that a simple button implant would miss entirely.
Sizing is settled at your consultation, with you, before the day of surgery. In some patients I will customize the shape.
Why I never go through the mouth
Many surgeons place chin implants through an incision inside the lower lip. I do not, and it is a deliberate choice.
I am putting a permanent implant against bone. I would rather it never met oral bacteria or saliva on the way in.
The submental crease gives me a well-hidden scar and a clean field. For an operation whose main serious risk is infection around an implant, that trade is worth making.
Who this suits
The usual description is not anatomical. People say they dislike how they look in profile, and when you photograph them the chin sits back relative to everything else.
It is a particularly good operation for younger patients who have noticed their chin is set back, with one condition: you should not be planning other work on the jaw or on your bite. If orthodontics or jaw surgery is on your horizon, that changes the plan and this conversation should wait.
You also have to be comfortable with the idea of an implant. Some people are not, and that is a fine reason to choose something else.
What can go wrong, and recovery
The risks are the ones common to any implant procedure: hematoma, prevented with careful hemostasis during surgery, and infection, prevented with sterile conditions, antibiotics, and the incision choice described above.
This is a quick operation with a benefit out of proportion to its size. Sutures come out at ten days, and by two weeks things generally look good. If your chin is not especially swollen you can be back at work inside a week, wearing a small strip of sutures.
Common questions
- Why would a chin procedure help my neck?
- Because chin projection sets the distance between the jawline and the neck. A chin that sits back shortens that distance, and the result reads as fullness under the chin regardless of how much fat is actually there. Adding projection lengthens the jawline and sharpens the angle.
- Will it change my whole face?
- It changes proportion, which is more noticeable in profile than head-on. The chin is one of the anchors the eye uses to judge facial balance, so a small change there can shift how the whole lower face is read.
- Is it usually done alone?
- Sometimes, in younger patients whose only concern is profile balance. More often it is part of a plan that includes the neck, because the two problems produce the same complaint.
Not sure this is your problem? A chin that sits back
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