Interest in plastic surgery is at an all-time high, but stigma and misinformation still surround the industry and patients.Welcome to Plastic Life, Allure’s collection designed to break down the cosmetic routine and give you all the information you need to make any decision that’s right for your body – no judgment, just facts.
Dermal fillers have been around for 16 years, and chances are, you know at least a handful of people who inject it into their cheek area—whether you realize it or not.The use of fillers along the cheekbones is as versatile as cosmetic procedures, making it especially popular among first-time patients seeking fillers of different ages, ethnicities and skin textures, as patient goals and achievable potential outcomes are greater than many people think much broader.
Dara Liotta, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York City, said that “almost everyone, really” is a candidate for fillers in the cheek area, explaining that the procedure is also “good for General Facial Enhancement”.
Obviously, cheek fillers can be used to make your cheeks look fuller.But “general face enhancement” can also include many other things, including smoothing fine puppet lines, disguising asymmetry, or enhancing cheek contours.Read on to learn more about cheek fillers and what to expect from your cosmetic procedure, including prep to aftercare costs.
Cheek fillers are injected into the cheekbones area to restore lost volume or more clearly define the facial bone structure.According to Nowell Solish, MD, a Toronto-based board-certified plastic surgeon who specializes in dermatofacial fillers, doctors most often use hyaluronic acid-based fillers in this prominent area because they are reversible and “easy to adjust” if too Use too much or use too little.Biostimulants are another class of dermal fillers that can be used on cheekbones to improve projection.While not as common as hyaluronic acid fillers—they are irreversible and require multiple treatments to see results—they last longer than HA-based fillers.
Dr. Liotta notes that injecting fillers into different parts of the cheek can have different benefits.”When I put a little filler in the higher cheekbones area, it can make it look like the light hits your cheeks perfectly, like contouring makeup looks like,” she says.But for those who may lose volume or notice darker lines near the nose and mouth, the provider may inject into a larger part of your cheek.
Dr. Solish explained that each dermal filler brand produces a line of viscous gel fillers in different thicknesses, which means that different types of fillers are needed for different targets and subsections within the broad cheek area.As mentioned, he only uses hyaluronic acid fillers because they are reversible, but alternates between specific products based on the volume, lift or projection, and skin texture the patient needs.
“RHA 4 is an amazing [filler] for people with very thin skin and for people who I want to add volume,” he says of thicker formulas, and Restylane or Juvéderm Voluma are his top picks for lifting.Usually, he’ll use a combination: “After I’ve got the volume up, I’ll take a little boost and put it in a few places where I want a little more pop.”
Dr. Liotta favors Juvéderm Voluma, which she calls “the gold standard for cheek enhancement,” and considers it the “thickest, most repeatable, long-lasting, natural-looking filler” for the cheeks.”When we use fillers to fill the bone we’re asking for, we want it to be as similar as possible to the bone for digestion,” she explains, adding that Voluma’s viscous hyaluronic acid formula fits the bill.
“For the cheeks, there are different facial planes,” explains Heidi Goodarzi, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Newport Beach, California.”The cheeks are a wide area, so you can inject in multiple parts of the cheek, and it really changes the shape of your face. I think people’s cheeks are the key to defining a face.”
While placement and technique are critical for all filler procedures, Dr. Solish believes it’s especially important for the cheekbones area.”It’s all about placement — in the right place, for the right person,” he tells Allure. “It’s about balancing each unique face.”
In the right hands, a board-certified plastic surgeon or dermatologist, cheek fillers can be completely customized to your specific needs, goals, and anatomy.
For patients who are concerned about fine lines or volume loss over time, Dr. Solish explains that there are two ways that cheek fillers can address these concerns.”One, we can change their face shape,” he tells Allure, adding that as we age, “our faces don’t usually fall straight down,” but instead become a bottom-heavy inverted triangle.”I can flatten the upper outer cheeks back to their original position, and another advantage is that I can place the filler in a way that helps lift the cheeks, which also reduces the visibility of the nasolabial folds.”
Contrary to popular belief, Dr. Solish says that many dark circles are associated with sagging cheeks and can be reduced by clever placement of fillers near the bridge of the nose, which he calls “the eyelid junction.”
For Dr. Liotta’s younger patients, who didn’t lose much cheek volume, the goals and techniques were often different.Instead of focusing on fullness, she assesses where natural light will hit the patient’s cheeks (usually the higher cheekbones area) and places filler exactly there to mimic contouring and highlighter makeup.”The filler just raised that little point,” she said.”It makes you look a little brighter, a little brighter, and makes [the cheekbones] more prominent.”
Dr. Goodarzi explained that if a patient’s cheeks became smaller, they likely had their temples as well.”Everything has to be in harmony,” she explains, noting that it’s a mistake to add cheeks without paying attention to the rest of the face.”Imagine you have a temple hollowed out and filled in the back of your cheek, but you’re also doing it to make the temple look [more visible].”
While the temples are an entirely different part of the face, Dr. Liotta notes that each facial area has a “intersection,” where one feature becomes another, and that the intersection of the lateral cheekbones and temples is “a gray area.”
A board-certified plastic surgeon or dermatologist with a solid understanding of facial anatomy will be able to properly assess the entire facial canvas to determine if a drop of filler will help balance this gray area.
As with all temporary solutions, cheek fillers are not a substitute for surgery.Dr. Liotta finds herself managing patient expectations on a daily basis, explaining that it’s not a “panacea” for sagging.
“Fillers can remove shadows and create highlights around the eyes, but the filler syringe is a fifth of a teaspoon and the amount patients pull up on their cheeks shows me that their filler goal is probably 15 syringe fillers,” she said Say.”If you [physically] pull up your cheeks in the mirror, you’re in cosmetic territory, not fillers.”
According to Nicole Vélez, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in Pittsburgh, if you’re using fillers in other public areas, you’ll need to follow the same bruise reduction regimen—that is, stop using fillers for 7 days before using an NSAID medication, avoid the gym for 48 hours after surgery, and take arnica or bromelain vitamin supplements before and after appointments.She also asks patients to arrive early if they want a numbing cream to relieve any pain from the injection sting.
“It’s also important that you schedule your appointment because you may have bruises,” she warns. “You don’t want to schedule it the day before a wedding or an important work meeting, for example.”
During the procedure, the syringe places the filler “all the way down to the bone” to make it “look very natural,” while avoiding any filler migration issues, Dr. Liotta said.”The more superficial the filling is placed, the more it ends up creating a weird, doughy look that we associate with overly full faces,” she explains.
Aftercare is minimal, and although bruising and swelling are common, they subside within a week, Dr. Vélez said.”I tell patients to try not to lie on their face that night, but it’s hard to control how you sleep at night, so if you end up waking up and lying on your face, it’s not the end of the world.”
Most hyaluronic acid fillers last nine to 12 months, but Dr. Liotta demonstrated Juvéderm Voluma’s longer-lasting formula, which she estimates to be about a year and a half.”There are a lot of genetic variables that affect the longevity of fillers, and there’s really nothing they can do about it, it’s their body chemistry,” explains Dr. Solish.”But, of course, people who are smokers, alcoholics, don’t eat [nutrition] and things like that tend to burn a lot of it.”
Also, serious athletes with extremely high metabolisms tend to require more frequent touch-ups.”They might take a month or two off,” he said.
The blessing and curse of hyaluronic acid-based fillers, which make up the lion’s share of the types of fillers doctors tend to use on the cheek area — in fact, 99.9 percent, according to Dr. Solish’s estimates — is that they’re temporary. So, if you like this result?This is really good news.But to keep it that way, you’ll need to book follow-up maintenance in about 9 to 12 months.
hate it?Well, as long as you use HA-based fillers, you have a safety net.In fact, your doctor will be able to dissolve it by injecting an enzyme called hyaluronidase, which works its magic in dissolving fillers in about 48 hours.You can also rest assured that any remaining filler will disappear after about a year, even if you don’t ask your doctor to dissolve it.
Of course, it’s critical to choose a board-certified dermatologist or surgeon whose aesthetic matches your own, or you’ll be breaking your heart, not to mention wasting money.
A rare but serious risk of getting a filler is a blocked blood vessel, which occurs when a provider accidentally injects a filler into a blood vessel.If the patient begins to experience any red flags for vessel occlusion.If a patient begins to experience any dangerous symptoms, such as blurred vision or discoloration of the skin, Dr. Vélez said she would quickly inject hyaluronidase to neutralize the fillers and send them to the emergency room.
“I inject very small amounts, I watch the patient get injected, and I pull the needle back every time I inject to make sure we don’t get into the blood vessel,” she explains her technique.Again, the good news is that this is very rare, and Vélez also explains that “use a filler and you’ll see immediate results”, so once you’re allowed to leave the doctor’s office after a period of time – the injection freezes, the occlusion risk window has been closure.
But there is one group of people that is not suitable for fillers.”We don’t usually do any cosmetic surgery on pregnant or breastfeeding women, just for the very few things that can happen,” says Dr. Vélez.
She added that while complications, such as accidental injection into a blood vessel, are extremely rare, they are also very serious, so a visit to a qualified, board-certified dermatologist or plastic surgeon who knows where the powerful blood vessels are located is a good idea. It is particularly important where and how to reduce risk.
The cost depends on the experience level of the syringe you are in, as well as the type of filler and the number of syringes used.In the New York City office of board-certified plastic surgeon Lesley Rabach, MD, for example, patients expect to pay around $1,000 to $1,500 per syringe, while Goodazri says fillers on the West Coast Syringes typically start at $1,000.
According to Dr. Solish, most first-time filler patients will receive about one or two syringes at their first appointment, but “with repeated treatments over the years, the interval between treatments increases.”
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Post time: Feb-11-2022