After cheekbone reduction surgery, is there still a back cheekbone left? Is there a solution?

Hello, this is Director Jo Hyun-woo of 입체성형외과.

I can’t believe I’m already writing the final column of 2024. This year, which was full of ups and downs, seems to have passed by so quickly.^^

Then let’s begin the final column.

I’d like to talk about the back cheekbone, which is one of the questions patients ask most often.

I previously explained the locations of the side cheekbone, the 45-degree cheekbone, and the back cheekbone in a column and a video.

In general, when cheekbone reduction surgery is performed, the cheekbone extends all the way to the skull area, so the bone in the front part of the skull inevitably remains.

Before and after cheekbone reduction surgery

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

If you look at actual patients’ CT images,

CT after cheekbone reduction surgery

Regardless of whether the back cheekbone is fixed, bone can remain as shown above.

However, that skull area is behind the sideburns, so it is a part that is hardly visible. Still, there are some people whose back cheekbone stands out unusually well.

This is the typical shape of the cheekbone.

As it goes toward the back cheekbone, 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 much.

However, in patients whose bone shape becomes wider toward the back like in this photo, the back cheekbone area may become especially noticeable after cheekbone surgery.

In such cases, if the back cheekbone is shaved down from the beginning and then fixed with pins, the height of the protruding back cheekbone bone can be reduced.

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

As with the CT images shown earlier, bone that becomes wider toward the back often does not show if much of it is covered by hair. That is why I usually look at the amount and position of the patient’s sideburn hair and decide first whether to proceed with back cheekbone surgery at the same time.

The next patient underwent pin removal and shaving of the back cheekbone while also having jaw angle surgery and chin surgery.

The method I recommend is to first perform the usual cheekbone reduction surgery, and if the back cheekbone later becomes a concern, it is good to remove the back cheekbone pins and shave the back cheekbone area. This can lead to better results.

That is because even if the back cheekbone bone is easy to feel by hand, it is often not visible.

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

I believe that in surgery, doing too much is not necessarily the answer.

After first addressing the truly necessary parts, it can also be a good way to achieve a beautiful face to handle the remaining concerns later. So rather than worrying too much about the back cheekbone, it would be better to think about cheekbone reduction surgery as a whole.

With today’s column, our clinic, 입체성형외과, is expanding and moving to a new location.

We will do our best to provide better care in a more comfortable space.

See you at the new clinic.^^

Thank you.