Do I Need A Cheek Lift?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am inquiring about a cheek lift procedure. I had cheek implants placed four years ago. The right cheek had to be redone less than a month after placement because the implant had gotten loose and falling. Now that same cheek is loose and detached and sags and I also have a deep jowl. What are my options? Are you familiar with this? What kind of surgery would be involved?

A: The cheek sag you have now is probably not caused by your cheek implant being loose or fallen. I will have to assume that it is a true soft tissue sag. Why that would be just on one side and with an indwelling cheek implant in place is not clear. Usually a cheek implant actually helps protect against soft tissue sag as it has it own lifting effect by creating more support.

But that issue aside, a cheek lift is needed to reposition the sagging tissues over the cheek bone/implant prominence. There are multiple ways to do cheek lifts which have to consider the following variables; incision location, vector of the lift and type of suture suspension. If you don’t have any lower eyelid skin excess concerns, a combined temporal intraoral approach can be used. If there are lower eyelid skin concerns, then a lower eyelid incisional approach can be with a more superior cranial suture suspension done.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana