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You’ve noticed that celebrities almost universally have balanced faces with a strong, projected jawline. You’ve also noticed that your own profile looks out of proportion. Is your nose too big, your chin too weak, or both?
Sometimes a weak chin exaggerates the size of your nose. Rather than undergoing extensive rhinoplasty surgery — which needs about a year before your final results appear — you may benefit from a chin implant. Chin augmentation with an implant is a simple, in-office procedure that only takes about an hour.
Are you curious about whether a chin implant can help you get the stronger and more successful look you want, but not sure whether it’s the right procedure for you? Dr. Robert Guida is an expert facial plastic surgeon here in New York City and he’s happy to answer your questions.
Symmetry is the overriding principle that determines whether we find anything — from a flower to a person’s face — beautiful. Whether it seems fair or not, when one of your facial features is larger or smaller in proportion to your other facial features, your face looks less attractive than it could.
You have a “weak” profile when your chin looks smaller than the rest of your features in side view. Either your nose is overly large, and therefore draws too much attention away from from your chin and lips, or your jaw is recessed, which exaggerates the size of your nose.
Your chin should have enough projection that if you hold a pencil straight against the front of your lips, it touches the tip of your chin. If your chin lies behind the pencil, your chin is recessed and your profile looks weak. Based on Dr. Guida’s findings, he may suggest strengthening your profile with a chin implantation, a rhinoplasty procedure, or both.
Dr. Guida has steered many women, men, and teens who’ve come to him for rhinoplasty to the much simpler and less expensive chin implant procedure. If he believes your nose looks large only because your chin is weak, he rebalances your face by augmenting your chin only.
One of the disadvantages of a weak chin is that it doesn’t provide the support your neck tissues need to stay firm and lifted. Many women and men with weak chins also have the dreaded “turkey neck” with a double chin, sagging skin, and wrinkled neckline.
In many instances, a chin implant — with or without chin liposuction — can create a simple, effective neck lift. The extra volume in the chin implant takes up the slack in your neck tissues, creating a firmer jawline. Dr. Guida will let you know whether an implant alone is sufficient to rejuvenate your neck, or if you’d benefit from combination therapy with lasers or the addition of a traditional neck lift to your chin implant procedure.
A chin augmentation with a silicone implant is quick, safe, and virtually painless. Using just local anesthesia, Dr. Guida can insert your implant in his office.
Depending on the size of your implant, he either makes an incision inside your mouth or underneath your chin. He chooses your implant based on size, shape, and the type of silicone he believes will work best to give you the results you want.
You may feel sore for a few days after getting your chin implant. You can control pain with over-the-counter analgesics and by gently icing the treated area.
You come back in a week for Dr. Guida to remove your stitches. You may be swollen for up to three to four weeks, during which time you should avoid strenuous activity.
Over time, the tissues in your chin fuse with the chin implant to hold it in place. Nevertheless, if you later decide to remove or switch out your implant for another shape, replacing or removing it is easy and safe.
Improving your attractiveness by augmenting your chin not only makes you feel better about yourself, it may change the way others treat you, too. According to renowned economist Daniel Hamermesh, men and women who are good looking are more likely to be be successful and happy than regular joes and janes. He claims that the best-looking women and men earn 8% and 4% more than their average counterparts, respectively.
If you’re ready to look as strong and successful as you feel, contact Dr. Guida for a chin implant consultation. You can reach him by phone or use the online form on this website.
