Cheek implant surgery aims to create a higher cheek line, giving your midface more definition. The operation is often helpful to actors, actresses, and models who need the cheek prominence to give them facial projection on film or in a photograph. The surgery result is permanent.

The procedure is done on an outpatient basis, in a surgery center or a hospital outpatient operating room. Cheek implants are usually done under local anesthesia with sedation and takes about 45 minutes to one hour. The incision will be made inside your upper lip or you lower eyelid. A pocket is then formed and an implant is inserted. After surgery, a dressing will be applied to minimize discomfort and swelling.

The cheeks will feel stiff and unnatural at the beginning, pain is not usual. Movement of the face will be limited by swelling. A small inability to smile and talk in the first days after surgery is normal and will revert in the coming days. The stiffness in your face subsides rapidly after the first 5 days and is gone within 7 to 14 days.

Liquids and soft foods are recommended initially, solid foods are recommended in a stepwise manner as swelling subsides. After one or two days bruises of yellow or bluish color will appear in the lower cheeks and will fade in 7 to 10 days. Inflammation will be present in the first 2 weeks, this is often symmetrical puffiness and will subside within weeks. Bandages and tape will be placed to keep swelling down and keep the implants in place initially. Bandages will be removed five days after the surgery.

Stitches used to close the incisions inside your mouth usually dissolve within about 10 days. Work resumption and stretching exercises can be reinstated by day 6, bending over, however, is discouraged as cheeks swell and ache. Brushing of the frontal teeth near the incision should be done after 6 days and a child toothbrush is recommended to avoid injury to the incision. After day 6, you can brush regularly.

Complications are rare and under normal circumstances, most people find this operation easier to recover from than expected.