Common Side Effects After Chin Surgery: Nerve Injury, Pain, Double Chin, Pebbled Chin

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

Today, I’d like to talk about side effects that can occur after chin surgery.

Side effects that may occur after chin surgery include nerve-related side effects, a double chin, a pebbled chin, and, less commonly, changes in tooth sensation.

The most commonly known side effect after chin surgery is probably nerve-related side effects.

This is also one of the areas that requires the most attention during surgery, and it is important to carefully check each step to prevent nerve damage.

In general, sensory nerves recover after contouring surgery, starting at 6 months and taking up to 1 year.

Inferior alveolar nerve illustration

The nerve that requires the most caution during lower jaw surgery is the inferior alveolar nerve.

It is one branch of the facial nerve responsible for sensation in the lower jaw area.

It provides sensation to the lower jaw teeth, gums, tongue, lips, and more.

The inferior alveolar nerve is a nerve that must be thoroughly protected during surgery, but due to stimulation from the operation, sensation usually recovers within 3 to 6 months. Right after surgery, most patients have numbness in the chin area, but if the chin feels itchy or tingling, that is a sign that the nerve is recovering. It is a good sign, so there is no need to worry.

However, in some cases, if too much bone is cut or excessive cortical bone removal exposes the nerve, the symptoms may last for more than a year. If the inferior alveolar nerve is severed, sensory changes and pain may remain for life.

To address this, nerve repair surgery for a severed inferior alveolar nerve may be considered, but it does not guarantee a 100% result.

So surgery should definitely be performed with a safe method that allows the nerve to be well preserved.

A patient who underwent pin removal surgery due to complaints of pain in the front of the chin

Many people continue to complain even years later that the front of the chin feels tight, hard, or constricted.

This may be caused by the fixation pins used in contouring surgery.

Even if the pins are harmless to the human body, they are still foreign substances, so they may trigger a sensitive reaction, and scar tissue may continue to form as a defense mechanism against the foreign body.

Scar tissue tends to pull on the surrounding tissue, causing a persistent feeling of tightness and constriction.

In such cases, some people experience dramatic improvement after pin removal surgery, so it may be worth considering.

A patient who underwent double-chin muscle tightening along with cheekbone reduction, square jaw surgery, and chin surgery

Another side effect after chin surgery is a double chin.

This may occur due to extensive dissection during surgery or low skin elasticity in the patient, but it can also appear when too much bone has been reduced, causing the soft tissue of the muscles and skin covering it to sag downward.

This can be simply corrected during surgery by pulling and suturing the periosteum, performing liposuction if there is a lot of fat, or using a lifting procedure if there is excess skin, so there is no need to worry too much. Recently, dramatic improvement has also been possible through double-chin muscle tightening surgery.

Pebbled chin

Another possible side effect is a pebbled chin.

This is mainly a side effect that can occur after a T-shaped osteotomy.

T-shaped osteotomy method

As shown in the illustration, in a T-shaped osteotomy, the center bone is cut and the two bones on either side are brought toward the center.

Because the muscle on the center cut bone remains in place while the muscles on both sides are brought together, people with a lot of muscle may find that the chin looks uneven and wrinkled. This can be easily resolved through Botox treatment.

Botox does not produce permanent effects, but there are reports that if it is administered regularly 3 to 4 times, habits decrease and muscle volume also decreases, so it seems like one of the best ways to address this.

Patient after T-shaped osteotomy surgery

Lastly, the side effects I will mention are tooth-related side effects.

As shown in the panoramic X-ray above, a T-shaped osteotomy uses fixation pins.

However, if the bone is cut too high, the screws may reach the roots of the teeth.

In such cases, the teeth can hurt and the patient may complain of toothache, so a CT scan should definitely be taken to check whether the fixation pins are pressing on the tooth roots.

Sometimes, even when the fixation pins are in the correct position, some people complain of changes in sensation in the lower teeth.

This seems to be because some of the sensory nerves are lost as the oral mucosa is incised.

These symptoms usually improve as recovery progresses, so there is no need to worry too much.

So far, I’ve talked about the side effects that can occur after chin surgery.

There may be other side effects as well, but these are probably the ones patients are most curious about.

Even when the surgery is performed accurately, temporary sensory changes can still occur, so please do not worry too much about side effects. It may help to think that there is always a solution and simply observe the recovery process.

Thank you.