Double Jaw Surgery - The New Cosmetic Surgery Craze in South Korea

Jean Chung for the International Herald Tribune (PHOTO SOURCEl: www.nytimes.com)

South Korea remains to be the top consumer countries in cosmetic surgery, a new cosmetic craze made them live up to their reputation. Today, South Koreans are embracing a type of surgery which was only done for medical reasons to correct facial deformity. 

From double eyelid surgery and asian rhinoplasty, South Koreans are now going for more radical procedures that would require months of painful recovery, commonly known as double jaw surgery.

Double jaw surgery involves some bone cutting in order realign the upper and lower jaws. Due to the extent of the trauma created to the bone structure and to the face, it would take months to recover from this surgery. Adding to that, it also brings with it a number of risks such as facial numbness and paralysis.

But in South Korea, a lot of individuals are willing to overlook this risk because of the cosmetic benefit of this procedure. It is able to create a V-shaped chin which makes the jawline smaller. And in a country that is hell bent on beauty, having this type of feature marks feminine beauty along with a big eyes, double eyelids and a high-bridged nose.

The surgery is able to alter or improve the face dramatically compared to Botox or a nose job. But doctors are raising concerns over this complex surgery being undergone by patients who don’t have any real dental flaws.

The promotion of this procedure is plastered all over South Korea. This started when a Seoul dental clinic ran a major ad campaign which promoted the cosmetic benefits of double jaw surgery.

There are celebrities who are reportedly paid by doctors and underwent double-jaw surgery appeared on TV shows advertising the product. They claimed that it changed their career and personal life dramatically. Adding to that, ads and posters can be seen everywhere with taglines such as “Everyone but you has done it.”

This lead a Seoul lawmaker to propose a certain age limit for cosmetic surgery, particularly emphasizing on the dangers of “bone-related surgeries”.

It is true that complications related to cosmetic surgery are becoming more serious. A medical malpractice lawyer in Seoul in the person of Shin Hyon-Ho shared that he has seen cases where double jaw surgery resulted to chronic jaw pain, misaligned teeth, inability to chew or smile, and a skewed mouth.

But despite that, the procedure remains to increase in popularity. A recent study even estimates the annual figure to have reached 5,000 without specifying if it is for cosmetic or medical reasons.

Cosmetic surgeons are also offering the procedure resulting to a significant decrease in price making it affordable for the people. One doctor even said that it can’t be blamed if a lot of South Koreans want to get the procedure, especially when they live in culture where beauty, especially in women, is highly regarded. 

Profileplasty: Combined Chin Augmentation and Rhinoplasty

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

IMAGE SOURCE: BLOGS.WSJ.COM

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

Read: Asian Plastic Surgery - A Pursuit of Perfection?

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.