Buccal Fat Removal
in Heavy Faces

The buccal fat pad is a small, gumball-sized chunk of fat inside your cheek in the area of your cheek hollow.  It’s an anatomical structure that helps you suckle as a baby.

In adults there is no apparent necessary function for it, except to make your face look round or even bottom-heavy.  For this reason, I often remove it via a small incision inside the mouth for those patients who desire a slimming effect.

The surgery is usually done under either a local or general anesthesia and takes an hour or less.  I put my patients on a liquid diet afterwards for a week to prevent them from sticking a potato chip through the healing incision.

Keep in mind that the results are permanent.  Although you can graft fat over the area later on, you cannot have your buccal fat pad replaced.  You should know that the face naturally loses fat with age, so if you have a thinner face then you really should not have this surgery done.  I have seen some men and women who’ve undergone this operation and been left with a gaunt, older-looking face afterwards.

Also, the amount of fat that can be removed (and the result of the surgery) is dependent on just how big your buccal fat pad is.  I wrote earlier that it’s about the size of a gumball.  But is it a penny-size gumball or a quarter-sized jawbreaker?  Unfortunately, we cannot tell until we actually get into your buccal space and remove it.

So the results can be a bit unpredictable.  I’ve had patients who present with quite bottom-heavy, full faces and have been disappointed with the small amount of buccal fat I’ve been able to remove.  In other cases, I hit paydirt and remove a large chunk out of the cheek.  That’s very satisfying!

To learn more about Dr. Youn performing your buccal fat removal, click HERE.