Cheek Implants

Q: Dr. Eppley, I have had injectable fillers in my cheeks with injections of several popular products over the course of three years now. It is costing a fortune since I metabolize it quickly. (so I’ve been told) I have used Radiesse, Juvederm, and most recently Voluma and love the results for correcting diagonal mid cheek lines and loss of fullness but they do not last more than 4 months. How do I find a surgeon who has sufficient experience in cheek implants ? What is cheek implant surgery downtime? Longevity? Any other cheek augmentation alternatives?

A: Your injectable filler story is not uncommon and many patients will be in your same situation in the years ahead. Injectable fillers are great at doing what they are intended to do most of the time. But despite the good results they provide, many patients have or will find out that the long-term costs of injectable filler ‘maintenance’ will become prohibitive for some patients. Thus seeking a permanent cheek augmentation solution has merits.

Cheek implants can provide a very satisfactory solution provided the proper implant style and size is chosen. Because the cheek area and the cheek implants chosen to augment it defy any exact method of measurement (unlike chin implants for example where the amount of horizontal augmentation needed can be measured) it takes a surgeon with a lot of cheek augmentation experience to get it right the first time. While the concept of cheek implants is simple, it can be difficult to get their placement anatomically correct with good symmetry. This difficulty is imposed on top of how to select the best cheek implant style and size for the patient.

Cheek implant recovery is largely about facial swelling and the time it takes for it to look acceptable. In reality expect that to be longer than one really wants. It takes about ten days to look socially acceptable, three weeks to ‘normal’ and really three months to judge the final result and how one feels about the facial change.

The intermediate step between injectable fillers and implants for cheek augmentation is fat injections. While far simpler and with a very quick recovery compared to cheek implants its issue is how well the fat will survive and how long it will persist. These are unpredictable and can be different for each patient.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana