Can My 30 Year Old Cheek Implants Be Removed?

Q: Dr. Eppley ,Some 30 years ago I had cheek implants and I always thought they were a little to big for my face. Fast forward to present day and I had Juva \derm Voluma done to fill out some hollows mid cheek. I believe the person that did the injecting did it too high. It was also my bad for not stating up front I had implants. It never crossed my mind this would even be an issue all these years later. Could this have displaced the implant? Same thing was done the other side and its fine. Can you also advise what types of implants were used back then and can they be removed without a lot of hassle and the cost of removal? Answers aren’t readily available because of age of implants. I’d really appreciate any help you can give me.

A:Thank you for your inquiry and sending your picture. Undoubtably your cheek implants are silicone in composition and can be removed by the route in which they were placed. (intraoral) Because deflating the cheeks by implant removal will have a facial changing effect i would leave the filler alone for now and see how it looks afterwards.

Injectable fillers can never displace cheek implants, particularly ones that are as old as yours are. They are very likely surrounded by calcifications which is very common in ‘ancient’ cheek implants.

Dr. Barry Eppley

World-Renowned Plastic Surgeon