Your jawline is one of the most defining features of your face. Its shape and angle can make the rest of your face look strong and youthful, or old, tired, and flabby. Jawline procedures are among the most common types of plastic surgery procedures, and can improve the look of both men and women.. Here are some of the procedures that can be used and a bit about why these may be necessary.
What makes a jaw look good?
Put in a nutshell, a jawline that looks “good” has a straight and defined line from where your jaw hinges near your ear, down to your chin. This line is associated with strength and beauty. When it is hidden or not quite the right shape, it makes the bottom third of our face look weak, old, or even flabby. It can also disrupt the appearance of other facial features. For instance, your neck might look recessed or weak because of how your jaw is shaped.
There are other considerations of beauty for a jawline, but the sort of jawline that you see major leading celebrities wearing, the Brad Pitts of the world, will have this straight line.
Types of procedures
There are three basic ways that plastic surgeons can manipulate a jawline. First, they can remove or change the tissue under the skin. Second, they can fill the space using fat or some sort of custom implant. Third, and most rare, they can change the bone structure itself.
If your bones are fine, changing or removing tissue may be all that you need. Procedures that use this technique include neck liposuction, neck lifts, lower facelifts, or a submentoplasty (sometimes known as a chin lift). Depending on your facial structure, the elasticity of your skin, and the amount of fat on your face, combinations of these may be needed to achieve the desired result.
In faces with poor bone structure, the first thing to look at is getting an implant. If you need something that is life-long and you have some major underlying issues with your jaw, like after an accident or poor genetics, these implants can cause a dramatic positive change. However, getting an implant can be more pricy than other procedures. CT scans of your jaw and neck are necessary to get all of the information needed to make an implant. Also, depending on where your implant needs to go, significant surgery may be necessary, including screws.
In some cases, implants are not enough. The bone structure may have to be changed in order to correct severe asymmetry. Your plastic surgeon can assess whether or not your particular issue will need this kind of repair.
Regardless of the procedure needed, the fact remains that anyone of any facial structure can achieve a jawline that they want. Jawline improvements are quite common in plastic surgery, and most surgeons receive a lot of training in this area. To see if you could benefit from a jawline procedure, contact our offices for a consultation.