Questions on Lateral Jaw Implants, Silicone implants, and screws used for the procedure by Dr. Young of Aesthetic Facial Plastic Surgery: I recently asked some questions on Lateral Jaw implants for a person on the east coast. Here is how I answered them:
1) I looked at the jaw implants from the link you sent me. I saw that they had lateral implants and posterior implants. What is the difference?? And which one would you recommend for me?? Lateral implants are the ones I was discussing with you. I don’t put in posterior ones very often. I think they are more ridden with potential complications.
2) If these silicon implants are screwed in, they will not mobilize later right?? For instance, I can sleep on my side without fear of having them move right? The screws will become part of you. The titanium metal osteointegrates with your bone. On fine mag, you can see the collagen bone fibers attach to the titanium. There will be a tight pocket around your implant and they should not move. Also usually there will be bone that partially encases the implant. But, they will not be as strong as your bone but strong enough.
3) Screwing in these jaw implants will not cause my bone to have problems right? I read something about silicon implants and screws. No they shouldn’t as explained above. Sometimes you can get bone erosion. The bone that you put it against in the lateral jaw is strong bone. Alveolar bone is softer and that can have more erosion. But this is always a possibility to have erosion. Again, much less common with the stronger lateral jaw and lower part of the chin bone.
4) What would the recovery from jaw/chin implants be like?? And how long does serious swelling typically last?? I ask because I don’t really want to tell people that I’m having jaw/chin implants. However, if my face is going to be swollen for 6 months, that could be hard. The swelling typically takes around 3-4 months to fully come down. But you will have most of your results 70% at 6 weeks, and 90% at around 6 months. It is really fast the first week and month. You should look fine around 2-4 weeks but the first week you have remarkable decrease in swelling.
Thanks for reading, Dr Young
Dr Young specializes in Plastic Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington
His office is called Aesthetic Facial Plastic Surgery.
