subject: Plastic Surgeons Use Cheek Implants To Fill Inadequate Cheek Volume [print this page] Cosmetic surgeons have outlined the specific beauty differences as a means to evaluate, identify, and quantify a person's cheeks for a cheek augmentation with the use of cheek implants. If a plastic surgeon were to use the incorrect shape or size of cheek implant, it may lead to a gender non-specific alteration of a person's face. Put simply, a cheek implant could make the face of a male appear more feminine and vice-versa. According to many plastic surgeons, the cheeks should be augmented with cheek implants only when the ideal cheek shape isn't present and the individual is over the age of 18. Many plastic surgeons even prefer to wait until a patient has lost all of their "baby fat" in their 20's. And some plastic surgeons believe that other methods such as facial liposculpting may be used to further accentuate the cheek area prior to this time.
The research of plastic surgeons into human beauty has found that the cheeks are the aesthetic focal point of a person's face. This means that it is the cheeks and not the eyes (as many people believe) that are responsible for the majority of what makes a person's face appear beautiful. Along with beautiful it can also make a face appear aged, youthful, feminine, or masculine.
There are several reasons that someone may consider cheek augmentation. Some people have an inadequate amount of cheek volume. This is likely a genetic factor and means that they were born with small cheeks that need cheek augmentation to provide them with the appropriate volume and shape. As opposed to a genetic factor, this may have been caused by some kind of traumatic event as well. A "crushing type" injury is very common in a car accident or in blunt force trauma. For these circumstances, the cheeks could be very asymmetrical and one cheek may require additional treatment. Using current technology, plastic surgeons are able to create a custom 3-D cheek implant that is fashioned from a CT scan of a person's facial bones. This is a very expensive procedure, and is only used in the most extreme of cheek asymmetry cases.
The shape of a person's cheeks change with age because the amount of soft tissue over the cheek bones decreases. This in turn shifts the cheek downward toward the corner of the mouth and nose. With an aging face comes falling tissues which gives the face a more angular look and therefore a more relatively masculine look. These changes will begin to occur in a person's 30's.
