What Surgery Is Best for a Long Chin? The Limits and Actual Results of Chin Reduction Surgery

Hello, this is Director Jo Hyun-woo of Ipcheok Plastic Surgery.

These days, many people want a short chin because they think it gives a youthful and cute image.

I previously explained how to correct a long face in an earlier column.

In the case of a long chin, the satisfaction with surgical results is relatively high.

I’d like to explain which surgical method is best and how far it can actually go.

Many people simply think that a protruding chin surgery alone should be enough to solve a long chin.

Of course, from the front, protruding chin surgery alone can be sufficient.

The vertical length can be reduced through T osteotomy or ㅅ osteotomy.

Example of correcting a long chin through ㅅ osteotomy

By reducing the vertical length and fixing the bone in an upward position, the chin length seen from the front becomes shorter.

Case of long chin correction through ㅅ osteotomy

Case of long chin correction through ㅅ osteotomy

However, because a person’s face is not seen only from the front, once the side profile is visible even a little, there is a limit to how much shorter the face can appear.

If you look at the photo below,

This patient has a very long chin length from the front.

But what is important is the red line marked when viewed from the side.

If this length does not become shorter, it is actually difficult to get the feeling that the face looks shorter.

Because protruding chin surgery alone cannot reduce this length, I usually say it is better to do it together with square jaw surgery.

Generally, people who feel their face is long often have little to no angle in the square jaw area.

I’ll show you a side CT image.

In the side images of people who feel their face is long, the angle of the jawbone is generally very steep.

In such cases, if the angled part of the square jaw is also cut, the angle becomes even steeper and the face may look longer.

Therefore, when performing long chin surgery, I either do not cut the angle of the square jaw or cut only a very small amount, and increase the amount of bone removed as I move toward the chin.

As shown in the photo,

If the bone is cut this way, the slope from the side becomes gentler, the length from the corners of the mouth to the jawline becomes shorter, and the face appears much shorter.

If you look at the patient’s front and side photos, you can clearly see that the face has become shorter.

If you look at the actual panoramic X-ray,

Case of long chin correction through V osteotomy

You can see that the chin length has been sufficiently shortened, but the angle area has changed very little.

For long chin surgery, I think the slope seen from the side is the most important factor, so I perform surgery with the goal of making that slope gentler.

For this type of surgery, T osteotomy or ㅅ osteotomy can also be used, but if the surgery is done with mandibular contouring (shaving) as in the patient above, it can be performed without fixation pins.

When there is no need to move the chin forward or backward, I think this method is a very good surgery for shaping the contour.

Some people sometimes ask, “If you do shaving, doesn’t it sag more?”

I explain that whenever a surgery reduces bone volume, whether it is T osteotomy or shaving, the remaining tissue below will inevitably remain.

Just as a puffy balloon wrinkles when the air goes out, when the area where bone used to be disappears, some skin and soft tissue will inevitably remain.

However, if the periosteum is pulled up as much as possible and fixed well, cases where sagging looks severe are very rare.

Case 1 of long chin correction through square jaw surgery and protruding chin surgery

Case 2 of long chin correction through square jaw surgery and protruding chin surgery

If there is a double chin before surgery, I recommend having liposuction done at the same time.

That is because people who already have a double chin often feel even more stressed about it after surgery.

When liposuction is done together, the effect is good.

Case 1 of long chin surgery combined with double-chin liposuction

Case 2 of long chin surgery combined with double-chin liposuction

When double-chin liposuction is performed together like this, it may reduce concerns about a double chin that can appear after surgery.

If the issue is sagging skin rather than fat, I think it would also be worth considering a lifting procedure using Elastiqueum.

Of course, long chin surgery also has limitations. One of them is the position of the nerve line.

If the nerve line is low, there are cases where the length from the side cannot be reduced much.

Our goal is to make the face shorter from the side as well, but in some patients, the nerve line may be only about 3–4 mm above the bone.

In such cases, even if square jaw surgery is performed, there may not be a big difference, so doing only protruding chin surgery may be better.

Case of long chin correction through protruding chin surgery only because the nerve line is low

I think the methods for correcting a long chin can largely be divided into two types: doing only protruding chin surgery, and doing protruding chin surgery together with square jaw surgery.

In some cases, good results can be achieved with protruding chin surgery alone, but for people worried about a long chin, the reason is often the length from the corners of the mouth to the jawline.

Therefore, if you carefully consider which case applies to you by looking at a CT scan, you may be able to achieve better results.

Thank you.