Is Pin Removal Surgery Necessary After Facial Contouring? What About Swelling and Recovery Time?

Hello, this is Director Jo Hyun-woo of 입체성형외과.

When performing facial contouring surgery, titanium fixation pins are mainly used.

Of course, there are also dissolvable pins that are absorbed and disappear, but they are not easy to bend into shape, and their strength is not as strong as titanium pins. That is why titanium pins are used so often. Today, I would like to talk about whether these titanium pins must be removed.

In a previous column, I explained what material titanium pins are made of.

As I mentioned in that column, titanium pins are harmless to the human body and almost never cause allergic reactions.

So even if you keep titanium pins in your body for life, they do not cause any particular problems. However, when you have a CT or X-ray scan,

You can see the pins like this. In fact, it is rare to get a facial CT scan, but because dental clinics take panoramic X-rays, it seems that many patients want the pins removed.

Then how is pin removal surgery performed?

In general, it is best to remove the pins 1 to 2 years after surgery.

If too much time passes, bone may grow over the pins, making it impossible to remove them completely.

This patient had pin removal after double-jaw surgery and contouring surgery.

Most of the pins were removed, but in some cases, some pins from the double-jaw surgery cannot be removed.

If you want all the pins removed completely, it is best not to wait too long.

Pin removal surgery is performed through the same incision used during contouring surgery.

Because it is not a surgery that cuts bone, it can also be done under sedation anesthesia, and if the pins were not placed long ago, the surgery time is not very long.

For the chin, it takes about 30 minutes, and for the cheekbones, where there are pins in both the front and back, it takes about 40 to 50 minutes.

However, if the pins have been in place for a long time, bone may need to be ground down. In cases where the bone must be removed one by one from between the screws, the procedure can take up to 1 to 2 hours.

After surgery, recovery is generally faster than after the first surgery because the surgery time is short and the bone is not cut, so swelling is much less.

Before pin removal surgery / 1 week after surgery / 1 month after surgery

This photo shows a patient who had pin removal surgery in the cheekbone area.

At one week after surgery, there is almost no swelling, and after one month, you can see that the face returns to its previous appearance.

Before pin removal surgery / 1 week after surgery / 1 month after surgery

The next patient underwent pin removal surgery in the cheekbone and chin areas, along with buccal fat liposuction.

As you can see in the photos, bruising and swelling remain one week after surgery, but after about one month, you can see that they have decreased significantly.

Pin removal after contouring surgery is not a surgery that must necessarily be done.

It is something to consider only if you feel discomfort or can feel the pins, so you do not need to think that you must have them removed after surgery.

If you want 100% pin removal, it is best to consider surgery within 1 to 2 years, and you do not need to worry too much about recovery after surgery.

Thank you.