Will Buccal Lipectomy And Perioral Liposuction Reduce My Chubby Face?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I had a genioplasty with you back in June. I am still happy with the results and everything healed up perfectly.

My face no longer looks “short” to me with my new chin, but I still think it looks too chubby for my BMI. My BMI is about 23%, I am comfortable at this weight and am not sure losing a ton of weight would even be healthy. I don’t feel the fat on my face matches my body/BMI. Maybe I am wrong and should try to lose a bit?

I am considering buccal fat removal and know you also do perioral liposuction. My face looks kind of “chipmunk” or even a little jowly to me. I wanted to ask him if he thinks I would be a good candidate for buccal fat removal or if I would need both buccal fat removal and perioral lipo or neither or something else. I attached a couple of recent pictures.

A: Thank you for the longer term followup. Many vertical chin lengthening patients actually do facial defatting (buccal lipectomies and perioral liposuction) procedures either concurrently with the chin or before or after the chin. So your request and goals is not atypical and the dual bone lengthening and fat removal procedures are synergestic. 

Both adjacent midfacial fat locations are of benefit for treatment and usually the lower cheek fat (perioral liposuction) adds as much to it as the buccal fat even though its total volume reduction is less. (as it is closer to where the chubbiness look is the greatest.

Fortunately these cheek reduction procedures are a lot easier to go through with less recovery.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana