If There Is No Jaw Angle Below the Ear, Is It a Dog Jaw? What Is a Dog Jaw?

Hello, I’m Dr. Jo Hyun-woo of 입체성형외과.

These days, many patients who come in for square jaw surgery say, “I don’t want a dog jaw. I want to leave even a little bit of the jaw angle below the ear.”

However, it seems that many patients have a slightly mistaken understanding of the meanings of the jaw angle below the ear and a dog jaw.

An over-resected square jaw bone and having little jaw angle below the ear are completely different things.

So today, I’d like to talk about the difference between having little jaw angle below the ear and a dog jaw, and whether not having a jaw angle below the ear means your face is not beautiful.

Wouldn’t a face with no jaw angle below the ear be unattractive?

Until just a few years ago, the trend was to remove the square jaw as much as possible and create the slimmest line possible.

The more the square jaw is shaved down, the smaller and slimmer the face tends to look.

First, let me show you photos of celebrities who have almost no jaw angle below the ear.

Hwang Woo-seul-hye, Irene

Seo Ye-ji

These people shown here have almost no jaw angle below the ear. Then would that make them dog jaws?

They are people with beautiful face shapes. I think it is better to think of the jaw angle below the ear and a dog jaw as slightly different things.

In the past, square jaw surgery focused on removing only the angle of the square jaw.

When I was a resident at a university hospital 20 years ago, there was a time when simply cutting the angle of the square jaw well was considered the best.

When the square jaw was shaved that way, the jaw line extending to the chin could look sunken, and a secondary angle could appear.

In general, a dog jaw refers to an awkward jaw line in which the square jaw bone is over-resected, as in the photo above, leaving the square area sunken.

Overall, the line looks more sunken at the posterior angle because of the anterior secondary angle, making it look like a dog jaw.

Kim Sa-rang

Having almost no jaw angle below the ear does not automatically mean a dog jaw or an awkward face shape.

In the past, many people wanted the angle cut down a lot.

I’ll show you photos of actual patients.

If you look at these patients’ photos, they have almost no jaw angle below the ear, but they definitely cannot be described as having awkward faces.

Chinese and Japanese patients sometimes explain it in more specific terms.

They ask for the bone to be cut up to the point where a horizontal line drawn from the corner of the mouth meets.

Of course, it can be cut as much as desired, but if you want a dramatically slimmer surgical result while also leaving a lot of the jaw angle below the ear, those goals can conflict with each other. So I don’t think you need to worry too much about the jaw angle below the ear.

A dog jaw seems to refer to awkwardness caused by excessive resection of the square jaw or by a line extending to the chin that is not smoothly connected.

If you look at the overall face shape and adjust the jaw angle below the ear to suit yourself when having square jaw surgery, you probably do not need to worry about a dog jaw or awkwardness.

If the square jaw bone appears due to a pronounced secondary angle, it can also be sufficiently corrected by cutting it smoothly and gradually toward the chin.

Today, I talked about the meaning of a dog jaw and whether a face without a jaw angle below the ear is unattractive.

Rather than focusing on just one point, if you plan surgery while looking at the overall facial line, you will be able to create a beautiful face shape.

Thank you.