Dr. Michael Ok. Obeng, a board licensed plastic surgeon, explains buccal fats removing and what anybody contemplating the process must know
One other beauty process is gaining recognition on social media: buccal fats removing.
Buccal fats is situated in the midst of the cheek and might current as a “child face“ look. Removing of buccal fats could make the face slimmer.
The process — which entails eradicating fats from the cheeks to create a extra contoured face — has been documented on TikTok by sufferers boasting the slimming outcomes. Buccal fats removing has additionally turn out to be fashionable in Hollywood. Most notably, Chrissy Teigen revealed that she had the process achieved final 12 months, exhibiting off her new outlined jawline on Instagram.
Dr. Michael Ok. Obeng, a board licensed plastic surgeon and a member of PEOPLE’s Well being Squad, tells PEOPLE concerning the process.
Obeng says there isn’t a well being profit to the process, however “Individuals like the best way it makes them look, that they’ve a slim face, their cheeks usually are not puffy, and so they have sunken-in cheeks. It makes the cheek bones puff out and it provides a pure contour.”
In his personal follow, Obeng, who is predicated in Los Angeles, has seen a rise in requests for buccal fats removing, seeing about 4 sufferers for the process every month. “Some folks have puffy cheeks,” Obeng explains. “So in the event you suck your cheeks in, some individuals are nonetheless puffy there, they’ve buccal fats. It is the dimensions of a cotton ball.”
The process takes solely about two or three minutes, Obeng says, and sufferers do not should be put underneath basic anesthesia for it.
“You make a tiny incision contained in the mouth, you’re taking the fats out, and then you definately sew it again,” he explains. “Then I inform my sufferers to place ice on it or eat popsicles all day as a result of it cools the cheeks in order that they do not swell, and so they do not bleed.“
“It is a quite simple process,” Obeng provides, noting that it is quick and simple when in the correct fingers. “You do it at lunchtime, and the individual is again to work.”
With any beauty process, there are dangers. However Obeng assures that with buccal fats removing, the dangers are usually minimal.
“For some folks, you may get a hematoma, a set of fluid whenever you take it out. You may get an an infection. All these items can occur, naturally. However in the correct fingers, the problems are minimized, if the individual is aware of what she or he is doing,” he says.
Like most cosmetic surgery procedures, the fee could be steep and varies based mostly on geography and the surgeon. Buccal fats removing has been round for at the least 50 years and could be as little as $3,000 and as a lot as $10,000.
Final 12 months, New York Metropolis-based plastic surgeon Dr. Steven M. Levine informed PEOPLE that anybody contemplating getting buccal fats removing ought to have a session with a board-certified surgeon.
“As with most issues in cosmetic surgery, the end result of the process depends upon surgical judgment,” Levine stated. “That features selecting the best affected person for the process and deciding how a lot of the fats pad to take away. As we age, we lose fats in our faces. Because of this, the surgeon and the affected person want to make sure that any younger individual present process buccal fats removing is an effective candidate for the therapy and will not remorse not having that fats later in life. Older sufferers with outstanding buccal fats pads can proceed with much less concern about their future facial modifications.”