Skip to main content

Featured

[ARTICLES] The “Witch’s Chin” That Becomes Prominent When Smiling—Restoring Natural Expression Through Mentalis Muscle Repositioning

The so-called “witch’s chin,” a condition in which the chin appears excessively elongated, pointed, or pulled downward when smiling, is not merely a cosmetic concern. In many cases, it originates from abnormal tension and misalignment of the mentalis (chin) muscle. While it may be unnoticeable at rest, facial expressions such as smiling or speaking can cause the chin to sink inward or be drawn downward, a result of overactivity of the mentalis muscle and imbalance with surrounding facial muscles. Recently, mentalis muscle repositioning surgery has gained attention as an effective solution for this condition. Rather than altering bone structure, this procedure repositions and re-fixates the overactive chin muscle to its proper anatomical location, structurally correcting the distortion that appears during facial expressions. Because it can address the witch’s chin deformity without bone resection, patient satisfaction has been notably high. Dr. Jang Yong-jun of ARC Plastic Surgery e...

*Surgery Diary - 10 - "Pin Removal after Facial Contouring or Bimaxillary Surgery"

 [Doctor's Surgery Diary]

- 10 -

"Pin Removal after Facial Contouring or Bimaxillary Surgery"


Recently, as interest in facial contouring and bimaxillary surgery increases, consultations on postoperative pin removal are increasing.

There are various reasons.
Some people don't like the feeling of "foreign substances" remaining in their bodies.
Some other people want to remove it for various reasons, such as when they visit the dentist, they look too naked on the X-ray.


***


In particular, those who have undergone bimaxillary surgery, as shown in the following picture (picture 1), seem to have a higher percentage of people who want to remove them because there are many more pins.

Picture 1_1

Picture 1_2

***


The motivation for pin removal surgery may be simple, but the process is not as simple.

First of all, you need to think about various things, such as how the bone is currently fused for pin removal, whether there is anything to improve more at the same time, and how to deal with skin sagging.

We should take this opportunity to finish without regret with the approach of "leaving no regret" rather than just removing pins.


***


Lastly, I will show you two interesting pictures.

Do you feel the subtle difference between the two screws (picture 2)?

Picture 2_1

Picture 2_2

If you look closely, the white background screw is a typical screw that we use, and the brown background screw is from someone who recently had a pin removal operation.

We checked it through CT scanning and X-ray and recognized it as a standard screw that can be removed before surgery.

However, it turned out that the width of the cross groove of the brown background screw was narrower than our equipment while I was performing the surgery. 

Fortunately, thanks to we had a similar experience before, we succeeded to remove all more than 20 screws by digging out and widening the grooves to suit our equipment with fine surgical tools.


***


In some simple pin removal consultations, there are some cases even leading to facial contouring reoperations to improve their current status.

Let's take a look at those cases together in the next post.




Comments

Popular Posts