Facial implant surgery can be an effective strategy for achieving more natural facial symmetry or adding proportion to the structural appearance of your face. If you are troubled by a weak jaw, small chin or lack of facial contour, plastic surgery may be right for you.

Theoretically, almost any area on your face can be augmented with implants—but the most common facial implants are those for the chin, jaw or cheeks.

These procedures are often done in conjunction with lip augmentation, face lift, neck lift, rhinoplasty or other cosmetic treatments for full effect.

Improve Facial Contours with Cheek Implants

Cheek implants work by adding volume to recessed or flat areas on the face, thereby increasing cheekbone projection. Incisions are generally made either inside the mouth or along the lower eyelid to allow for the cheek implant to be inserted.

To maximize emphasis on the patient’s cheeks, the patient’s own fat or a soft-filler (Restylane) may be injected in addition to the implants.

Correct a Non-Existent Jaw Line

The telltale sign of a weak jaw is a lack of definition between where the neck ends and the jaw begins. A strong jawline will angle away from the chin in a way that clearly delineates a distinction between the neck and jaw.

Jaw implants can increase width at the bottom of your face to correct this condition. Augmenting the mandibular body, angle, and ramus will create a robust jawline that is generally considered to be more masculine. For this reason, jaw implants are more common with men than women.

Chin Reduction (Mentoplasty) and Chin Augmentation (Genioplasty)

A chin that is either too prominent or heavily recessed will throw off facial proportion in relation to the forehead and mid-face. Additionally, an exceptionally small chin can disappear completely into the neck to create the illusion that the patient is overweight despite having a normal body type.

Both of these abnormalities are correctable via mentoplasty and genioplasty.

Chin augmentations are very popular given that results are nearly immediate in terms of achieving noticeable changes to the patient’s silhouette. Note that genioplasty is often performed along with plastic surgery of the nose to achieve ideal facial proportions.

Chin implants are done either with the patient’s own bone material, borrowed from a rib or the pelvis, or with synthetic materials.

What are Implants Made Of?

Facial implants are constructed with specially formed solid materials designed to be compatible with human bone and tissue.

The most common material found in implants is silicone. High-density porous polyethylene (Medpor) and expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE or Gore-Tex) are also popular.