I had cheekbone surgery, but the back cheekbone remains. Is there a way to fix it?

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

These days, patients do a lot of research before coming in,

and I’d like to talk about one of the areas people often ask about, called the “back cheekbone.”

I’ve explained the positions of the 45-degree cheekbone, side cheekbone, and front cheekbone in previous columns and videos.

Basically, when cheekbone reduction surgery is performed, the cheekbone extends to the skull area, so bone in the front part of the skull will inevitably remain.

The part marked with the red circle in this photo remains.

If you look at actual patients’ CT scans,

regardless of whether there is a fixation pin in the back cheekbone area, bone like this can remain.

But an important fact is that the front part of the skull is the back part of the sideburn area, so it is a place that is hardly visible.

However, there are some people for whom the back cheekbone area is especially noticeable.

This is the general shape of the cheekbone.

As it goes toward the back cheekbone area, the bone curves inward toward the skull, so for most people, even if the side cheekbone is reduced, the back cheekbone does not stand out.

Patients whose bone becomes wider toward the back, like in this photo,

may find that the back cheekbone area becomes more noticeable after cheekbone surgery.

In such cases, if the bone in the back cheekbone area is shaved down from the beginning and then fixed with a fixation pin,

the height of the protruding back cheekbone bone can be reduced.

This patient underwent 230-degree cheekbone reduction surgery and back cheekbone shaving at the same time.

I usually look at the amount and position of the patient’s sideburn hair and decide whether to perform back cheekbone surgery at the same time, and then explain my recommendation.

In fact, even if the bone gets wider toward the back, like in the CT image shown earlier, the back cheekbone is often not visible if much of it is covered by hair.

The next patient underwent back cheekbone shaving while removing the fixation pin.

The method I recommend is to first perform the standard cheekbone reduction surgery,

and later, if the back cheekbone is truly bothersome, removing the back cheekbone pin while shaving the back cheekbone area can also produce good results, so I recommend this approach. Even if the back cheekbone bone can be felt well by hand, it is often not visible.

Today, I briefly explained the back cheekbone that remains after cheekbone surgery.

I do not think doing too much in surgery is always the answer.

After first addressing the parts that truly need to be solved, dealing with the areas you are still concerned about as a secondary step can also be a good way to have a pretty face, so I think it would be better not to worry too much about the back cheekbone and instead consider cheekbone reduction surgery.

Now the long winter is ending and warm spring is coming.

It is also a time when outdoor activities increase, so please take good care of your health during the seasonal change.

Thank you.