Real Patient Results
Actual patients of Dr. Kim
Shown with patient consent. Individual results vary by anatomy, technique, and healing.
Case 1Before (left) & after (right) — front view
The chin is skeletal. The neck and the nose follow it.
Chin projection is a question about bone, and the submental contour, the angle between chin and neck, and the apparent size of the nose all depend on it. A patient who asks for neck liposuction or a nose refinement when the real deficiency is the chin will not get what they came for.
The skin of the chin takes the shape of whatever lies under it, and the bone decides the rest. The symphysis (the midline of the lower jaw) ends in the mentum, and its most forward point, the pogonion, fixes forward position, vertical length and symmetry. Soft tissue can hide a deficiency; it cannot correct one.
The skin and muscle of the neck hang between chin and chest like a cable between two anchors, and the chin is the upper anchor. Leave it behind and the cervicomental angle (between the underside of the chin and the front of the neck) opens, and the same tissue folds beneath the jaw as a double chin on a neck that is not heavy.
The nose is read against the chin, not alone. A chin set back leaves the nose without a counterweight in profile, so a nose of normal size reads as large; in 170 consecutive rhinoplasty patients, 40 percent had a small chin (Ozkurt 2014). No controlled study alters only the chin and asks raters to judge the nose, so this is clinical teaching.
Patients rarely ask for a chin implant; they ask for neck liposuction for a double chin, or a nose refinement for a large-looking nose, and both can be the wrong operation. Liposuction moves no bone, so under a short chin the angle is only partly improved (see neck liposculpt); a nose reduced to compensate can end up smaller than the face needs (see rhinoplasty). A loose neck needs a neck lift, and an implant placed to chase a flaw it does not cause produces a new problem.
The patients best served have a mild to moderate front-to-back deficiency; a bite that meets evenly; healthy gums and teeth; and no nicotine in any form. A level side-on photograph shows it: a flat chin-to-neck transition on a neck of normal size points to the chin, and a thick roll that lifts clear between thumb and finger points to fat.
Disappointment is likely with a bite problem or a jaw that sits back (the chin is hiding it, and an orthodontist or an oral and maxillofacial surgeon comes first); with a wish for the neck to tighten, since an implant removes no fat or skin; with a wish for a dramatic change, since the skin envelope limits how large an implant looks natural; and with distress out of proportion to the finding.
An on-call physician covers after hours, and surgery questions reach the surgeon through the office at 315-471-8404. The first blocks follow our written sheet; the rest are patient experience and published ranges, not trial data.
Rest, then activity as tolerated. Ice 20 minutes on and 20 off for two days. The first visit is the day after surgery.
No heavy lifting, exercise or bending, and one week off work or school, or as Dr. Kim directs. Numbness of the chin and lower lip is common.
The incision is checked and any stitches removed (our protocol; the sheet does not mention them). Most patients first look at the profile properly here, and we are glad to be there for it.
Swelling settles unevenly and the chin may look larger than it will end up; surgeons answering patients publicly say wait at least six weeks.
A capsule of scar tissue forms and holds the implant in place; until then, anything likely to strike or press on the chin is avoided (our guidance).
The settled result on surgeons' accounts; final contour may take longer.
Across 54 studies and 4,897 patients, complication rates were 15.7 percent for implants and 19.7 percent for osteotomy (Oranges 2023). The implant can shift off the midline, ride up or twist (0.5 percent with subperiosteal pockets, 2.8 percent with dual-plane; Liao 2023), usually correctable by repositioning or exchange. Infection is usually treated by removal, with replacement later.
Temporary numbness of the chin and lower lip is common and settles; pooled transient nerve injury was 2.4 percent after implants and 16.4 percent after osteotomy (Oranges 2023), and persistent numbness appears only as case reports. Dissection can disturb the mentalis, with lower lip weakness or a sagging chin pad; rapidly growing swelling on one side may be bleeding.
A chin implant sits on the bone and presses on it, and over time the bone beneath can begin to thin; radiographs and CT show a shallow imprint, deepest at the upper edge. A review of 28 patient studies found prevalence from 0 to 100 percent, mostly under five years of follow-up, with a mean depth under 2 millimeters (Yeung 2022); of 15 patients a year or more after a silicone implant, 14 had erosion up to 2.0 millimeters and none had symptoms (Sciaraffia 2018). Case reports describe deeper erosion reaching the roots of the lower front teeth. Radiographic change is common; harm from it is rare.
Cause and frequency are disputed. A 2025 review argues that lifting the periosteum also stimulates new bone, so part of the valley is a raised rim (Madorsky 2025), while a CT study calls resorption almost unavoidable (Cao 2024). A prospective series with CT at baseline, five years and ten years would settle it; none exists.
| Option | What it changes | Downtime and durability | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chin implant | The contour, with a shaped implant in front of the bone; not the bone, vertical length or a bite problem | Local anesthesia; one week off work; stays until removed, and can be exchanged | Mild to moderate deficiency; an even bite |
| Sliding genioplasty | The bone itself, cut, moved and fixed with a plate and screws | Incision inside the mouth; the bone heals in place | Large advancement; vertical or sideways correction |
| Hyaluronic acid filler | The contour only, by adding volume over the bone | Little downtime; lasts months; reversible with an enzyme | Mild deficiency; a preview |
Not every option listed is performed at this practice. Selection follows examination, and results vary.
Implant against filler. Dr. Kim's position is that because the chin is bone, filler is often less visible and shorter-lived than a properly sized implant, which is generally more effective for definitive correction; filler previews a subtle change (see injectable dermal fillers). The counter-position is stronger than it sounds: in a randomized trial, 74 percent of treated patients still showed at least a one-grade improvement at 48 weeks against 11 percent of controls (Marcus 2022). Against that, no implant was compared, and a non-randomized series found bone resorption on CT in 35.9 percent after chin filler (Guo 2024).
Implant against sliding genioplasty. A genioplasty can lengthen, shorten, advance or straighten the chin, which an implant cannot, and two retrospective comparisons favor it for satisfaction and neck angle (Guyuron 1990; Tabrizi 2024). The implant is shorter, does not cut the jaw, and had less transient nerve injury (2.4 against 16.4 percent; Oranges 2023). Where the findings point to the bone (a bite problem, vertical change, marked asymmetry, a large advancement), Dr. Kim will say so.
Reviews are not data, but the same complaints recur. Too big: a chin that looks long, heavy or like a second bump. Too small: a few millimeters that look slight from the front, with 20 percent in one intraoral series wishing for more (Aynehchi 2012). Both are errors of sizing and expectation: choose the size from a level profile, agree what change to expect, and wait before deciding.
Surgery is performed at the practice's AAAHC-accredited office-based surgical suite in Syracuse, which is self-pay, cosmetic-only and without general anesthesia, under local anesthesia alone or with twilight sedation, typically in under one hour. The implant is solid silicone, placed through a small curvilinear incision, most often in a natural crease under the chin.
From the written protocol given at the pre-operative visit (revised 2026); our sheet is short and ends at the one-week visit.
A responsible adult stays with the patient for 24 hours, with no driving in that time or while taking prescription pain medication. Ice goes on the chin for two days, 20 minutes on and 20 off (practice protocol; the evidence for ice is thin). Some discharge in the first two days is normal.
A prescription pain medication and antibiotic are named on the sheet. Aspirin, ibuprofen, Motrin, Advil and Aleve are avoided, because they may increase bleeding; acetaminophen is the fallback. Our sheet sets no end date, so patients ask how long it applies.
The bandage stays on about five to seven days. Once it is off, the incision line is cleaned with hydrogen peroxide only to dissolve crust, never as a routine wash, and Aquaphor is applied daily.
No heavy lifting, exercise or bending for one week, and one week off work or school, or as Dr. Kim directs. Visits are the day after surgery and at one week. The sheet is silent on contact sports, sleep position and washing; surveyed surgeons give four to eight weeks before full activity.
A short insert covers the chin area only (ice, bandage, peroxide for crust, Aquaphor); the sheet for the main operation governs the rest.
Call 315-471-8404 for uncontrollable bleeding (some discharge in the first two days is normal); a fever, at the temperature the written instructions give; severe pain; uncontrollable vomiting; cough or shortness of breath; sudden swelling or discoloration of the skin; swelling that grows quickly on one side; a wound that opens; or an implant felt at the incision. An on-call physician covers after hours; if no one can be reached and bleeding is heavy or breathing is short, go to the nearest emergency department.
The written instructions given at discharge govern recovery. Anything labeled practice protocol is our rule, not settled fact.
Where the evidence is unsettled, we publish it as unsettled; no randomized comparison exists for any of these. Implant against genioplasty and filler is answered above.
For: imaging changes in up to all patients in some series. Against: none in seven of 28; a raised rim of new bone can mimic erosion; none of 15 had symptoms.
For silicone: removable, least numbness, long record. For porous: tissue ingrowth, less bone change in one CT study. The series are retrospective and unmatched.
Under the chin: avoids the mouth, fewer wound breakdowns. Inside the mouth: no skin scar, less asymmetry in one review.
For: standard teaching; 40 percent of 170 rhinoplasty patients had a small chin. Against: no study alters the chin alone.
Combining procedures means one anesthetic and one recovery, and the chin is considered first in planning, because the neck and the nose are judged against it. It is often done with neck liposculpt or a neck lift, sometimes through the same incision site; with a facelift, which does not change the skeleton; and with rhinoplasty, whose plan should say where the chin sits. No figures are published here, since a number quoted before an examination cannot be accurate; a combined operation is priced as one, and cosmetic surgery is not covered by health insurance.
Shown with patient consent. Individual results vary by anatomy, technique, and healing.
It can change how large the nose appears; it does not change the nose. A chin set back leaves the nose without a counterweight in profile, so a normal nose reads as large. A nose that is large in absolute terms needs its own operation.
It can when the cause is a short chin. The chin is the upper anchor of the neck; when it sits back, ordinary fat and skin read as a double chin. An implant removes no fat and tightens no skin, so loose skin and deep fat need neck liposuction or a neck lift.
Neither is better for every patient, and the evidence is retrospective. Genioplasty moves the bone and can change vertical length and asymmetry; the implant is shorter, does not cut the jaw, and had less transient nerve injury (2.4 against 16.4 percent). A bite problem or a large advancement points to the bone.
Filler is temporary and can be dissolved; an implant needs surgery to remove. In a randomized trial against no treatment, 74 percent of filler patients still showed improvement at 48 weeks, though no implant was compared. Filler previews a change and has rare risks, including blocked blood vessels.
The implant is: solid silicone stays until removed. The appearance is not frozen, because the face keeps aging around it and the bone beneath may change. Follow-up in published series is mostly under five years, so durable is the accurate word.
Most are solid silicone, the material we describe; porous polyethylene and ePTFE allow tissue to grow in. A pooled review of 39 articles found no significant difference in infection, malposition, extrusion, revision or removal; numbness differed, in unmatched groups.
Imaging often shows a shallow imprint in the bone under the implant, so in that sense yes. Reported prevalence runs from 0 to 100 percent across 28 studies; most found under 2 millimeters, and in one series of 15 patients none had symptoms. Whether it progresses over decades is not known.
Malposition or asymmetry, infection, extrusion, numbness, bleeding, dissatisfaction with size, bone changes beneath the implant, and possible revision or removal. A pooled review of 54 studies found an overall complication rate of 15.7 percent for implants; that is a proportion, not a prediction.
Some numbness of the chin and lower lip is common and settles. Pooled transient nerve injury was 2.4 percent after implants; other reviews give 0.4 to 20.1 percent by implant type, because series count different things. Numbness that spreads, or comes with lip weakness, should be reported.
Both happen, and both are errors of sizing and expectation. Too big reads as a long, heavy chin; too small, as almost no change. Swelling confuses the first weeks, and an implant can be exchanged for a smaller or larger one.
Rest on the first day, then activity as tolerated; no heavy lifting, exercise or bending for one week; one week off work or school, or as Dr. Kim directs. Surgeons answering patients publicly say to wait at least six weeks before judging size; that is clinical experience, not trial data.
Yes. A solid silicone implant can be removed, or exchanged for a different size or shape, for size regret, shifting, infection or bone changes. Patient reports after removal differ, from the chin settling back to a sagging chin pad.
Where a statement reflects clinical experience, surgeons' published opinion or patient reports rather than published data, it is labeled that way in the text.
Yeung 2022, Front Surg; Sciaraffia 2018 and Madorsky 2025, Plast Reconstr Surg Glob Open; Cao 2024, Aesthetic Plast Surg; Liao 2023, Ann Plast Surg; Oranges 2023 and Marcus 2022, Plast Reconstr Surg; Tabrizi 2024, Int J Oral Maxillofac Surg; Guyuron 1990, Aesthetic Plast Surg; Aynehchi 2012, Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg; Ozkurt 2014, B-ENT; Guo 2024, Int J Surg.
This page is education, not medical advice, and reading it does not create a physician–patient relationship. Individual results are not guaranteed and vary by anatomy, technique and healing.
Patients from New York City return home after the procedure and are seen for the one-week visit at our Manhattan office. Patients from Rochester stay at a local hotel the first night and then return home.
Explore our Rochester office or Manhattan / Sutton Place office for local consultation and long-term follow-up.
"I was very fortunate that I chose Dr. Kim to perform a rhinoplasty and chin implant on me, I loved my results already... Dr. Kim and staff are professional, he explained everything to me before the surgery."
"My chin adds balance to my face in a way I didn't even think it could. It especially makes my profile look incredible! Dr. Kim is an artist."
"Absolutely love Natural Face Clinics — Dr. Kim is amazing. He is professional, knowledgeable and the staff are fabulous! I would never go anywhere else."