Can The Zygomatic Arch Be Shaved Down?

Q: Dr. Eppley, Hello I wanted to ask you about a procedure and if you could do it. A reduction in the red marked areas of the pictures I will send.

I want to achieve a very small correction and reduction and to make them even. I read about zygomatic reduction but I dont want the ones that is popular in Korea where they cut the bone and reposition it. 

I think only a shaving of Zygomatic arch is what I am looking for but I am not sure. I will attach some pictures for you to see. The red marked area is where I am talking about but more so the area between the Zygomatic bone and the ears which I think is the Zygomatic arch. That is where I feel it is a little wide and would want it to be more straight.

A: The zygomatic arch can not be surgically reached short of a full transcoronal incision…which no patient is going to do for aesthetic purposes. Furthermore the zygomatic arch is incredibly thin (1 to 2mms) so shaving of it is not possible. As a result the only way to move the zygomatic arch inward is by osteotomies which are done all over the world and not just in South Korea.

That being said when only a few millimeters of inward arch reduction is needed the isolated posterior zygomatic arch osteotomy done through a small sideburn incision works just fine.

Dr. Barry Eppley

World-Renowned Plastic Surgeon