Jaw and chin reduction. Anyone know how much (in millimeters) is usually removed

[anjaq]

I had my CT scans done last week and I discussed with a surgeon what can be removed at the jaw and chin. He said there is a lot of bone, so we can remove quite a bit. He drew some lines onto the picture, so now I would like to know (since I am always a bit afraid of getting too little change in the jaw and chin area) how much others had removed from that area?
3 mm? 5mm? 1 cm? more?
I kind of want to assess if the suggested surgery can be considered more conservative or more agressive.
The area concerned is the front of the chin as well as the mid of the lower jaw (not the back part with the mandibular angles)

[emilycdcanada]

I know I've probably mentioned this before, but it has been my observation that almost all surgeons remove a similar amount of bone when intending to be aggressive. I was told by a surgeon that at around 4mm (in both directions) the jaw starts to bleed and going beyond that point is risky. The mandible angle can be reduced much more. I think this is essentially what you see from every surgeon.

The two exceptions I can think of are Dr. Z and possibly Dr. Bart, Dr. Z often removes a lot where facelifts are often necessary in younger patients, and some of Bart's results seem more aggressive, but then you can clearly see soft tissue issues in those photos too.

[anjaq]

Oh wow. 4 mm seems like not a lot. I was suggested by 2 surgeons so far that they can, if I want an agressive change, take 7 or 8 mm. I worry now a bit that this is too much to be healthy, one of the surgoens suggested a face lift in the same surgery, the other said it may not be necessary, I should wait for a year after surgery. I saw some photos that had little change visually even though the jaw was operated, others had impressive changes of the jaw. I cannot imagine the latter only removing 4mm, but maybe that was what was done with those where little change is seen?

[reborn]

It all depends on the doctor. If you want aggressive work choose an aggressive doctor. 8mm is very possible but not many will do it

[emilycdcanada]

Yes, actually 4mm does seem low as I recall thinking it was approximately 0.25", so I believe I was told 6mm.

There is however a physical limitation, and that probably varies between people too. Also I'm quite sure that the law of diminishing returns applies here. Can you take more bone off past what is considered safe? I'm sure, but how will the soft tissue reattach? If you have soft tissue along your jaw, where is it going to go--it's going to hang down, it doesn't disappear. You can do a facelift but I suspect there will still be pockets of sagginess hanging around (and you can see this is some before and afters, even in younger patients)--this is why almost all surgeons are not super aggressive with jaw contouring, if it made sense to do 8mm+ reductions why wouldn't more surgeons do it? I assure you it's not because they are intentionally trying to be conservative.

[anjaq]

Well at least one surgeon who suggested something around 7mm said, I have a lot of bone there, so there is some mass that can be removed safely. I think he is very much concerned about safety, so I think that is not much of an issue - I worry a bit about the sagging though. I am older than 40 now and I dont want to look older after FFS because the skin sags down. I heard a lifting surgery can also be very expensive - more than 10000 or even 20000 EU.