Profileplasty: Combined Chin Augmentation and Rhinoplasty

Man Profile Before and After Cosmetic Surgery (Forehead Implant, Eyelid Surgery, Rhinoplasty & Chin Augmentation)

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Cosmetic surgery not only deals about creating enhancements or changes to a certain body part. It has to take other features into consideration to create an overall pleasing appearance. That is why terms like profileplasty were coined, because this includes certain procedures that create a much better result together than when done alone.

Profileplasty is defined as the study on facial ratios in order to create a better plan regarding rhinoplasties, mentoplasties or aesthetic osteotomies of the face. The surgeon uses deep anatomy and superficial fixed points as guide.

When a patient comes in for consult for a procedure like rhinoplasty, the surgeons not only focus on the nose but also its relation to other facial features. And the body part that is also emphasized when dealing with nasal reconstruction is the chin. That is why rhinoplasty and genioplasty often go together.

The proportion of the face is usually affected by the way both the nose and chin look like. For instance if the nose is quite large and the chin appears to be aesthetically weak, the surgeon can decide on making the nose smaller and thinner and augment the chin using an implant.

Aside from improving the nose or chiseling it to make it more defined, doing some alterations to the chin can also go a long way in improving the overall balance of the face. These two can be done together to create a more appealing result in the end.

Chin augmentation improves the results of a rhinoplasty especially when there is no harmonious relationship between the nose and the chin. A receded chin with a large nose can give the impression of a lack of assertiveness, while a prominent chin on the other hand can give a stern appearance.

Woman Profile Before and After Cosmetic Surgery (Forehead Implant, Eyelid Surgery, Rhinoplasty & Chin Augmentation)

IMAGE SOURCE: KPSURGERY.TUMBLR.COM

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Doing these two together is a safe procedure because genioplasty or chin augmentation is a generally safe procedure. It can be done on an outpatient basis under general anesthesia.

The surgeon creates an incision in the oral mucosa maintaining aesthetic quality because any scarring is invisible to the outside. To improve a protruding or receding chin, a bone cut may have to be done. The chin is either moved forward or backward and stabilized using screws or implants. 

Dr. Bertossi of the University of Verona, Italy, along with his colleagues examined the long-term results and complications involved in combined rhinoplasty and chin augmentation. It involved a study of 90 cases of the combined procedures that was performed from January 2002 to January 2004. This was to look into the long term stability of the aesthetic outcome.

The study concluded that “the combined approach in correcting the facial profile is an effective procedure to achieve a more harmonic and consistent clinical outcome.”

This was evidenced by the 45.6% of the patient population who underwent chin augmentation with 100% stability after three years. For chin augmentation, 52.4% of the patients had 100% stability also in the span of three years. The results showed that the chin was stable with not more than a millimeter of recurrence.

Therefore, it can be said that combined rhinoplasty and chin augmentation provides optimum patient satisfaction with a very minimal incidence of recurrence.