Background: A short and wide lower face is perceived as unattractive and masculine. Simply contouring the mandibular body and angle is insufficient to make the lower face with short and wide features slimmer and more feminine. In many cases, vertical elongation of the chin together with a bone graft is necessary. This can cause infection, donor-site morbidity and height loss by resorption of the grafted bone. To prevent this problem, the authors performed a pedicled interpositional graft with the discarded bone from narrowing genioplasty, and the results were aesthetically satisfactory.
Methods: From March 2010 to September 2011, 32 patients who received chin narrowing and vertical lengthening surgery at the authors' clinic were included in this study. For all the patients, the remnant mandibular bone at the stepoff from the site of the genioplasty to the mandibular angle was reduced concurrently.
Results: No complications occurred, and all the patients were satisfied with their postoperative results.
Conclusion: Harmonizing the vertical length and transverse width of the chin is essential to acquiring more favorable results in mandibular contouring. The authors recommend pedicled interpositional bone grafting in narrowing genioplasty as a safe and useful method for aesthetic chin lengthening.
Level of evidence iv: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .