Does the Surgical Method Change Depending on the Protruding Cheekbone Location? Exact Locations and Diagnosis of the Front Cheekbone, Side Cheekbone, 45-Degree Cheekbone, and Back Cheekbone

Hello. I’m Dr. Jo Hyun-woo of OB Facial Plastic Surgery.

Today, rather than discussing something difficult, I’d like to clearly explain terms that many patients find confusing when they come in for consultations.

Patients who come in for cheekbone reduction surgery often ask where the front cheekbone, side cheekbone, 45-degree cheekbone, and back cheekbone are.

If you look at the diagram, you can understand it clearly. I’ll explain it using the bone images.

In the frontal image, the blue area is the front cheekbone, the green area is the 45-degree cheekbone, and the red area is the side cheekbone.

If you look at the 45-degree view, you can clearly see the 45-degree cheekbone marked in green.

I’ll show you the same thing in an actual patient’s photo.

Before 230-degree 3D cheekbone reduction surgery

As you can see in this photo, patients usually come in because the side cheekbones are prominent and they want to reduce the width of their face, or because they want to reduce the 45-degree cheekbones when viewed from the side. In addition, the front cheekbone needs volume to look younger and more three-dimensional, so in some cases front cheekbone implants are actually used, and in general, fillers or fat grafting are often performed.

In conclusion, increasing the volume of the front cheekbone and reducing the side cheekbone and 45-degree cheekbone can help create a smaller, more three-dimensional face.

I’ll now show you follow-up photos of the patient I showed earlier after surgery.

After 230-degree 3D cheekbone reduction surgery

As you can see from the before-and-after difference, after surgery the side cheekbones are reduced in the front view, making the face look narrower, and if you look at the 45-degree cheekbones, the bulging projection has been reduced, resulting in a smoother line.

Of course, the front cheekbone was not operated on, so there is no major change.

Before 3D cheekbone reduction surgery

Some patients ask whether 3D cheekbone reduction surgery improves the volume of the front cheekbone.

In fact, if the cheekbone is rotated inward, it is true that some tissue gathers toward the front cheekbone area.

Also, because the side cheekbone is reduced, the front cheekbone may appear slightly fuller.

After 3D cheekbone reduction surgery

However, since the amount is actually not very large, for people whose front cheekbones are too flat, even a small increase in volume through fat grafting or fillers can make the face look much younger and more three-dimensional.

So where is the back cheekbone that patients talk about?

Since the cheekbone extends all the way to the skull area, when cheekbone reduction surgery is performed, the bone in the front part of the skull area must remain.

The area marked in the photo above is the back cheekbone.

However, the front part of the skull is behind the sideburn area, so it is a place that is barely visible.

Still, there are some people for whom the back cheekbone area stands out especially clearly. In such cases, shaving down the bone in the back cheekbone area can reduce the height of the protruding back cheekbone bone. For more details, please refer to the column below.

Today, I explained the names of the cheekbone areas by location in a simple way because front cheekbone, side cheekbone, 45-degree cheekbone, and back cheekbone are not actually difficult terms, but many people find them confusing. I hope this will be helpful when you receive consultations and undergo surgery in the future.

Thank you.