The so called facial bone filing reduction means a surgical bone filing method been used in facial bone reduction surgeries to make the face slimmer. Here the facial bone reduction surgeries often refer to the Zygoma Reduction and the Mandible Bone Reduction. Those two facial bone reduction surgeries are the most popular face slimmer surgeries among Asian people.
How is the facial bone filing surgery done? Like its name bone filing means to file down the big bone to a smaller one in order to make the face slimmer. The simple tool for bone filing is something like a wood file used by carpenter. Surgeons manually file the facial bones which need to be trimmed down with this instrument. A more sophisticated bone filing tool employ a electric motor to drive the filing tip either in a rotating or in a reciprocate movement. From its mechanism of these bone filing tools we could tell that the trimmed away bone tissue has been grinded to dust, no fragments of bone left. So there is no visible bone been taken out in facial bone filing reduction, only bone dust can be seen.
Then is the patient be able to see the bone dust after the surgery? They normally will not be able to see the bone dust. We can imagine that there is a tremendous heat been generated by the filing tool moving continuously over the bone, especially in the use of the electric motor driving tools. To avoid heat injury to the surrounding tissue saline is used to flash the filing site constantly and the flash saline then is been sucked away. The bone dust filed down is flashed off from the site and sucked away simultaneously in these processes, no bone dust left for the patient to see after the surgery. In case the bone dust is substantial some of the dust my settled down on the operation instrument or the bottom of the surgical wound. I this case if the surgeon want to keep the dust the patient may be able to see the them after the surgery.
Under high speed electric bone filing the bone dust is fine, uniform and jelly in water. The bone dust in this photo settled on the protecting retractor.
Under low speed filing the bone dust is rough and uniform. The size of the particles in the dust depend on the grove depth of the filing tip.
Manual filing bone dust. The manual movement of the filing tool is variable. So the size of the particle in the bone dust is not uniform.
However bone fragments can be seen in facial bone reduction by ostectomy. If the patient wants to take a look at the bone fragments removed from his or her body and tells the surgeon in advance he or she can physically see the removed bone fragments. They can choose to keep the bone or to discard it properly. In contrary if the facial bone reduction is done be facial bone filing even the patient demand to have a look at the bone the surgeon may not be able to provide any because no bone fragment can be taken off in filing process.
In order to preserve an ideal ship of the remaining bone the bone fragments been trimmed off vary in size and ship. These fragments are too big to be sucked away and can only be taken out.
Some people may misunderstand the concepts of ostectomy, osteotomy and bone filing believing that all facial bone reduction surgeries are done by bone filing. Never the less if we expending the concept of bone filing to include ostectomy and osteotomy then we can really see the bone fragments been trimmed off by “bone filing” in some the operations that actually cut the bone. If we confine the concept bone filing strictly to actual bone filing then we could not be able to see any bone fragment been trimmed off in the facial bone reduction process.