How Do I Correct Cheek Sagging After Cheek Implant Removal?

Q: Dr. Eppley, Earlier this year I had my cheek implants removed and I feel a lot better that I did. The only thing is the hollowness that it created under eyes and lower cheek area. I feel that that this is due to the loss of cheek attachments and you have even mentioned so in one of your blogs. Do you know of any method to reattach the tissues to cheek and under eyes?

A: You are correct in that I have written in the past about your exact situation. Like breast implants once the cheek tissues are detached and stretched out for implant placement, they may not recover their original position after cheek implant removal. It is not so much from the tissue stretching but all of the cheek tissue attachments have been stripped off from the bone. Unless there was some specific method to reattach these tissues or lift them at the time of cheek implant removal, they may develop some sag off the cheek.

There are several methods to resuspend sagging cheek tissues. This can include a mitek suture anchor resuspension done intraorally or a suture suspension done through a combined temporal and intraoral approach. It is important to realize that this will help with cheek sagging and will have no effect on undereye hollowness.

An alternative approach is to simply have fat injections done to restore cheek volume and  fill in the under eye hollows at the same time. Or resuspend the cheek tissues and save the fat injections just for the under eye hollows.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana