Is General Anesthesia Necessary Before Facial Contouring Surgery?

Hello. I’m Director Jo Hyun-woo of 입체성형외과.

Today, I’d like to talk about anesthesia related to facial contouring and cheekbone surgery.

Do you have to undergo general anesthesia for facial contouring or cheekbone surgery?

General anesthesia refers to a state in which a person does not wake up no matter how much stimulation is given, and breathing stops.

Because of that, general anesthesia is used for high-difficulty surgeries rather than simple ones. In other words, surgeries involving bleeding or bone removal

are generally performed under general anesthesia.

In the case of facial contouring surgery, most procedures involve removing bone, so they are performed under general anesthesia.

Since general anesthesia usually means the patient is not breathing on their own, many people feel great fear about it.

However, in many hospitals, surgery is performed under general anesthesia with patient safety in mind,

and this helps reduce surgical discomfort and pain.

Surgeries performed under general anesthesia require fasting for about 12 hours before surgery,

while surgeries performed under sedation anesthesia require fasting for about 8 hours.

As an exception, there are facial contouring procedures that are performed under sedation anesthesia rather than general anesthesia.

The 대표적인 example is the "230-degree cheekbone reduction surgery."

"230-degree cheekbone reduction surgery" is a method that reduces the overall volume of the cheekbones

by shaving the 45-degree area.

The 45-degree cheekbone area can show very good results with shaving alone, and depending on the patient’s condition, if there is a lot of fat in the 45-degree cheekbone area,

additional liposuction in that area can lead to even better results.

Unlike typical cheekbone reduction surgery, "230-degree cheekbone reduction surgery" is performed not through an intraoral incision,

but through a scalp incision, which makes it possible

to monitor the patient’s breathing sufficiently under sedation anesthesia during the procedure.

In particular, because the surgery time is shorter than other facial contouring surgeries, if you want to reduce your cheekbones but

feel burdened by general anesthesia, or if you want a shorter recovery period, it is possible to proceed with the surgery through

"230-degree cheekbone reduction surgery," which allows sedation anesthesia.

"230-degree cheekbone reduction surgery" does not remove the 45-degree cheekbone area, but instead uses a shaving technique that precisely grinds down the cheekbone to smoothly reduce it without osteotomy.

Of course, it does not simply perform cheekbone reduction on the facial bones alone, but considers the muscles, fat, and other tissues based on each patient’s individual facial shape when performing surgery. For that reason, patients who actually undergo the surgery express high satisfaction.

For those who visit 입체성형외과 for a consultation, we provide thorough explanations in advance about general anesthesia and sedation anesthesia, and because an anesthesiology specialist is on site, you do not need to feel burdened about the surgery. Since surgical methods and anesthesia methods differ depending on the facial shape, for safe plastic surgery and to prevent side effects, it is best to proceed with surgery after sufficient consultation with a specialist in advance.

When performing facial contouring surgery, general anesthesia is by no means a dangerous method; it is a procedure carried out with the patient’s safety as the top priority, and surgery is therefore performed after general anesthesia. Thank you.