The chin has long been an aesthetic lower facial focus for men and women for decades. Creating a greater chin prominence can be done with a wide variety of standard chin implant styles and sizes with variations in their use based on an appreciation of male and female chin shape differences.
The concept of lower facial augmentation has expanded beyond that of just the projecting chin. A more complete jawline augmentation is now sought by both men and women whether they have a prior history of a chin implant or not. Standard chin and jaw angle implants is one approach but a custom jawline implant has proven to offer superior aesthetic results.
Like the chin the jawline also has numerous gender differences which must be considered in both their design and surgical placement. The obvious difference is in their size or implant volume.The near circumferential distance around the inferolateral jawline border is greater in men than women with an associated increased implant volume as well. This would be expected given than many men are bigger in stature/size than women with corresponding bigger lower jaws.
But size alone does not account for the most significant gender differences in custom jawline implant designs. The shape of them is also a critical difference. Male jawline implant designs often have stronger prominences or corners at the chin and jaw angles with more associated width from front to back. Conversely a female jawline is slimmer with a rounder or v- shaped chin with jaw angles that focus more on length rather than width.
The desired shape of male vs female jawline implant designs parallels the basic differences in their anatomy. Men have more defined jaw angle and corner prominences (exostoses) due to stronger musculotendinous attachments. The pull of these muscles generates more bone mass making the jawline bigger and wider. The chin is females is often wider and flatter than the male chin even if it is horizontally shorter.
One of the important intraoperative anatomic differences between men and women in jawline implant placements is at the jaw angles. The bony bumps of the male jaw angles indicates strong tendinous attachments which must be carefully released for the subperiosteal dissection to avoid a postoperative masseteric muscle dehiscence contour deformity. Women have much smaller to non existent jaw angle bumps making the subperiosteal dissection less difficult along the inferior border with a lower risk of such muscle contour issues.
While a custom jawline implant is an effective lower facial augmentation method, there are significant gender differences in both bony jaw anatomy as well as desired aesthetic shape outcomes. Squaring out the jawline with a stronger appearance isoften how men may define their aesthetic goals. Conversely women usually desire a more v-shape jawline that has a smooth linear connection to jaw angles that are more vertically evident but not necessarily much wider.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana