A new study published in JAMA’s Facial Plastic Surgery journal takes a closer look at procedures that combine rhinoplasty and chin augmentation to enhance facial profile.

Surgeons at the University of Verona evaluated 90 surgical cases performed over a span of 2 years. They assessed the long term stability and aesthetic outcome of simultaneous chin surgery and rhinoplasty.

The results varied, depending on the chin surgery technique that was performed.

A Lesson in Proportion

If you visit a plastic surgeon and request rhinoplasty, you may be surprised to hear them recommend chin surgery as well. Remember that they want to give you the best cosmetic outcome, and it’s possible to get rhinoplasty and still have facial proportions that don’t compliment your appearance.

This is largely due to the relationship between your nose and chin. To create a pleasing facial profile, the projections of each element should be balanced. A small chin can make a moderately-sized nose look large, while a large nose might overshadow a normal sized chin.

Relative size, not actual size, is what surgeons measure when it comes to nasal surgery or chin surgery. Each patient needs to be assessed individually, and the surgeon must look at the big picture – not simply the nose or chin alone. For the right patient, a combined chin surgery and rhinoplasty is the best approach.

As Dr. Dario Bertossi and colleagues conclude in their study: “The combined approach in correcting the facial profile is an effective procedure to achieve a more harmonic and consistent clinical outcome,”

Rhinoplasty and Genioplasty: What’s the Difference?

Rhinoplasty can enhance your appearance or improve your nasal function. Because the nose is such a critical focal point in your face, any change will have a powerful effect on your appearance.

Usually an outpatient procedure, rhinoplasty can be done with a general or local anesthetic combined with sedation. Precise incisions are made at the base of the nose and the skin is separated from the soft cartilage and bone. This allows the doctor to reshape the underlying nasal structure.

Genioplasty can augment or reduce your chin size, balancing it with your other facial features. The surgery may involve chin implants (augmentation) or a surgical advancement of the bone (sliding genioplasty). In most cases, a special biocompatible implant is placed in front of the chin bone. In others, the chin bone is separated, advanced and then and reattached.

Photo by Vincent Boiteau