Question: Does chin augmentation have to be performed in a hospital?

Answer: No, chin augmentation surgery does not need to be performed in a hospital and, in fact, over the past almost 10 years I have been performing chin augmentation surgery in my office using strictly local anesthetic.

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Question: I am a 25-year-old man with what I consider to be a very weak facial profile. I am considering a chin implant procedure, but I would like to know what the chin implant is composed of, and how likely is it that my body will reject the implant?

Answer: The chin implants that I currently use are made of firm or hard silicone.  They are quite flexible and will contour against the bone of the chin and, due to the fact that they are silicone, there is literally no chance that your body would reject the implant.

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Question: I have virtually no chin and would like a chin implant. About how long is the recovery time after surgery?

Answer: Recovery from a chin implant is extremely minimal and, in fact, many patients will go to work the next day as long as they do not mind a small amount of swelling in the chin, the possibility of some mild bruising, and a suture underneath the chin.  The suture is removed in about a week and all of the swelling subsides within the few couple of months.  The chin never looks so swollen as to appear strange in the far majority of circumstances.

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Question: What sorts of complications are possible with chin implants?

Answer: Chin implants can cause temporary or permanent numbness of the chin.  The implant can be placed improperly or shift during the healing phase to the point where it would need to be revised.  There is always a very small risk of infection with need of implant removal and there is a risk of temporary weakness of the muscles that pull the corner of the mouth down.  All of these risks are exceptionally small and although temporary numbness of the chin is the most common side effect of an implant, this virtually always dissipates in the first few months and overall chin implants have an extremely high patient satisfaction. 

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Question: I know that nerve damage is one of the risks of chin augmentation.  How can I tell if I have nerve damage?  I had my procedure 3 weeks ago and I am still feeling some pain and tingling.

Answer: Nerve damage during a chin implant would be typically to the mental nerve, which provides sensation to the chin.  Many patients will have some numbness to the chin or tingling and discomfort if the nerve is stretched or bruised during the procedure.  It would be exceptionally uncommon to cause such a severe injury to the nerve that permanent numbness would result, but that certainly is a remote possibility.  If you currently have some discomfort and tingling in the area three weeks after a chin augmentation, I really would not be too concerned as this is most likely just the nerve recovering from the procedure and the sensation should return to normal over the next few weeks to, at most, a few months.

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