Do you wish that you had higher, chiseled cheekbones? Has your face hollowed out after loosing weight or with aging?

Cheek or Malar Augmentation with Implants can help balance and harmonize your facial features by giving you fuller cheeks, lift your face, and fill facial hollows.

What Do Cheek Implants Do?

Prominent cheekbones are a hallmark of beauty in our culture. Men and women with strong, high cheekbones convey a healthy, youthful look. When your cheekbones are flat, this can cause a tired or aged appearance.

Often, patients who are focused on other features, such as their nose, eyes or sagging skin, discover that their greatest benefit would result from Cheek Implants. Cheek Implants provide greater definition to your cheekbones, to provide greater balance with the rest of your face.

What Is the Difference Between the Malar and Submalar Implants?

The Malar Region is the outer upper cheek area that gives that chiseled appearance when the cheekbones are high. The Submalar region is the lower or mid-cheek area that becomes gaunt and sunken as we age. Your cosmetic surgeon can augment one, or both or these areas depending on your needs.

Who Are Candidates for Cheek Implants?

Men and women with flat, thin and round faces can all benefit from Cheek Implants. For older patients, Cheek Implants fill out the cheek hollows and grooves that are associated with the loss of fat and soft tissues from aging.

Sometimes, patients who have lost weight also see a hollowing of their face, and prefer to have implants in lieu of gaining the weight back.

Men and women who are not good candidates include those with excessively thin skin, very prominent bone structure, significant facial asymmetry and a history of facial irradiation or severe immune deficiency.

What Are Cheek Implants Made From?

Facial implants are either solid or porous. Usually, solid implants are made of silicone. Porous implants are usually made of polyethylene. The body responds differently to the two types. Solid implants become walled of by a "capsule," that is a layer of tissue that forms around it. Porous implants on the other hand are fixed to the surrounding tissue by bone ingrowths.

One disadvantage of the solid implant is that it can move around once placed. Thus far, none of the complaints about autoimmune reactions that have been connected to silicone breast implants have been tied to silicone check implants.

Porous implants, on the other hand, remain in place, yet are more expensive and more difficult to place than are the silicone implants. They also usually require a larger incision because they are non-malleable, and are harder to remove if misplaced.

How Are Cheek Implants Placed?

In general, however, your cosmetic surgeon will make one of two kinds of incisions –, or one inside of the mouth on the upper lip — that is an intraoral "canine" type incision — or on the lower eyelid, that is a "Trasnconjunctival" approach.

The surgeon then creates a pocket between the cheekbones and its overlying soft tissues. The implants are then placed into that pocket.

The implants are sometimes sutured to anchor them in place, but most often your cosmetic surgeon will simply make a precise pocket that will hold the implant in its place until your body forms a capsule around the implant.

What Is Submalar Implantation?

Submalar augmentation is a technique that positions an anatomically designed silicone implant over the mid-third of the face. It gives the appearance of restoring the soft tissues hollows of the mid-face.

How Is the Size of the Cheek Implants Chosen?

Your cosmetic surgeon will have the implant designed according to a preoperative analysis of your facial size and structure. Your surgeon should involve you in the process, such as through photographing or depicting you in some way with the implant taped to your skin.

Can Cheek Implant Surgery Be Performed with Other Procedures?

Yes. Sometimes, the cheek implants are inserted during Facelift or Eyelid Surgery when a patient with facial aging is deficient in facial volume and the tightening of the skin by a facelift will not adequately rejuvenate the face. Under such circumstances cheek implants are inserted through the incisions made for the facelift or blepharoplasty.

Dr. Younai is a Board Certified Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon with experience in all aspects of Facial Cosmetic Surgery including Facial Augmentation with Facial Implants, Facelift or Rhytidectomy, eyelid surgery or blepharoplasty, neck lift, forehead or brow lift, rhinoplasty, etc. He is skilled and experienced in all techniques of Facial Augmentation and Implant Surgery and strives to create a face that is harmonious and natural looking. During your consultation he will discuss all details including: if you are a good candidate, surgical options and techniques, potential risks and complications of surgery, pre- and post-operative instructions, recovery course, as well as what to expect after surgery. You will also have an opportunity of seeing and trying on different types of facial implants. At that time Dr. Younai will also show you before-and-after pictures of other patients with Facial Implants, such as Cheek, Chin, Jaw, and Nasal Implants.

Dr. Younai performs Facial Cosmetic Surgery for patients who come to the California Center for Plastic Surgery from the Northern as well as the Southern California region. Some of these cities include Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Hollywood, Burbank, Sherman Oaks, Encino, Calabasas, Woodland Hills, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Pasadena, Glendale, Valencia, Palmdale, Fresno, and Oxnard.

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