Thank you for your question.
You submitted your question with a photo of a model and you also provided photos of side
views of yourself to essentially ask the question what is the ideal proportion when it comes
to chin enhancement in men.
And certainly, you’ve done your research and you’ve learned a lot about relative
projection of the chin up to the lip, behind the lip or in front and you want to see what
we as doctors use as guidelines to help you make a decision about chin implant’s size.
And of course, you have concerns about getting the ideal and not to look “too mannish”
from a stronger projection.
Well, I can certainly share with you how I have a discussion with patients who come to
see me in practice.
A little bit of background, I’m a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon and Fellowship-trained oculofacial
plastic and reconstructive surgeon.
I have been in practice in Manhattan and Long Island for over 20 years.
Chin implants and facial implants have been a big part of my surgical practice for many
years.
And in the last few years, even further the use of long lasting thicker fillers for comparable
augmentations has also really opened up the opportunity to help my patients of all ages
non-surgically.
So, thinking about balance and proportion is something I do all day long in my practice.
So to begin with, I will certainly share with you some basic guidelines that we as doctors
use.
We actually, for decades have been analyzing faces, look at what is ideal and there are
basically general guidelines.
And we use lines and they have many names like Steiner’s lines, Ricketts’ lines,
Frankfurt plane and the vertical lines.
Basically, looking at relationships between the nasal base, the lips, the chin projection
from a side view.
And also, when we look at a person in the front, we look at the width of the chin and
the relative balance.
And interestingly, we look at this of course, taking into consideration something I’ve
always been a proponent of which is looking at ethnicity.
And even with that factor added in, it is something that is almost universally appreciated
that certain ratios are very much attractive across ethnicity.
You’ve probably heard of Phi or the Golden Ratio of 1.6 to 1.
And these are relationships within the attractive face that plays a role in what we as people
look at when we look at someone.
We obviously don’t make calculations but we make an impression and a perception on
what is balanced and attractive.
And so certainly, for men, for a strong chin, is something that’s desirable.
So as far as general guidelines, I can tell you that in my practice, for 20 plus years,
when I’m doing a chin implant, for most women up to a certain height, I will use a
small chin implant.
When I talk about small, I’m talking about a specific implant referred to as an anatomical
chin implant.
And what that means is that the shape of the implant is in a way tapered so that it fits
just right on the mandible or the chin in a way that looks very natural.
And then when it comes to men, generally speaking, I end up using a medium sized chin implant.
Now during surgery, we use something called sizers and these are basically implants that
are not meant to stay in but are used to allow the surgeon and in my case, myself and my
staff to look at what the projection and shape looks like before settling what implant to
place permanently.
Now that being said, that may still be a challenge for you to commit to especially if you really
are not sure.
And so a lot of times in my practice, I will tell patients like yourself that we can do
something called Structural Volumizing.
Structural Volumizing means placement of thicker fillers such as Juvederm Ultra Plus or Juvederm
Voluma at the bone level using special technique that allows me to create augmentation that
can be comparable to surgical implantation.
Further, because we are using fillers and if we want to achieve a certain shape, we
also have the option not only placing the material at the bone level but we can also
place it at the deep soft tissue level, the superficial soft tissue level and we can use
multiple different fillers.
It gives us almost infinite options as to the number of ways we can do what is essentially
sculpting.
And a lot of times, someone who is not quite ready for surgery, I think that is the better
choice because it is certainly a lot more involved to undergo a surgical procedure,
wait for swelling to resolve and then decide whether or not you want something different
and that’s not always a good time.
But when it comes to somebody who is still not quite sure and wants to see some variation,
injectable fillers can actually be, not only an option as a trial but can also be a solution
that can be applied with some regularity.
Thanks to the placement of these fillers and the type of fillers they are, these results
can almost last for a year even up to two years.
And that can allow for some flexibility.
In fact, there are many people who aren’t interested in having surgical correction for
these types of desires and injectable fillers just basically opens up the chance for many
people who wouldn’t do surgery to get this type of result or at least a comparable result.
So I think you can over analyze anything and doing what we do, we see this all the time.
Patients often miss the forest for the trees.
And I would say we are dealing with a zone that we can refer to as simply art and the
art of seeing what is ideal and proportional for you.
And as long as we have a shared understanding, we can start with injectable fillers.
Otherwise I would say that certainly you’re in the zone if you allow for a certain range
of projection to be something that you would be fine with.
And certainly, from that respect, a chin implant procedure is pretty straightforward and can
be a long lasting solution for you.
Meet with qualified, experienced cosmetic surgeons who offer both injectables and implants
and see what you’re comfortable with.
I think that judging by the question, I think it’s better probably.
My impression is that injectable fillers might be a good way to get your sense of what you
look like without committing to surgery first.
So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question.