Consultation

During your consultation, you and your plastic surgeon will discuss why you need the surgery, and what you hope to achieve. You will also discuss the process of the surgery and everything that will be involved until your recovery period. You should be completely open with the doctor about your expectations, concerns and habits. Your medical history will be evaluated to determine candidacy for the surgery. The doctor will also take photos of your face so that you can see the difference after the surgery.

There are certain guidelines that the doctor will advise you to follow before the surgery, like maintaining a healthy diet and exercise regularly, stop smoking at least three weeks before the surgery, to strictly avoid anti-inflammatory drugs or medicines having aspirin so that the risk of excess bleeding is reduced.

Surgery

The procedure is performed in an outpatient setting under Local Anesthesia. The surgery takes around 1 to 2 hours.

During the procedure, an incision on the inside of the mouth, on the inner portion of your cheek. The buccal fat will stick out immediately through the incision due to external pressure. These fat pads are then removed by using the surgical instruments. In the end, your surgeon will close all your incisions using sutures. Typically, these sutures are absorbable, but each plastic surgeon performs the surgery differently.

This procedure can be combined with Facelift. In this case, fat pads can be extracted effectively, and hence, there will be no need for an extra incision inside the mouth.

Post Surgery

Following your surgery, you may be instructed to stay on a liquid diet for several days or longer. Your surgeon may instruct you on special mouth rinses to reduce the risk of infection. You will experience some discomfort and pain for which your surgeon will prescribe medication. There will be bruising and extreme swelling after the surgery, and it will settle down after two to three weeks. Sutures will be removed after six to seven days of the surgery. You will be able to resume your activities after a week.

After Care

In order to have successful long-lasting results it is important to follow the below:

• Take pain medication as per prescription.
• Consume soft food or fluids for a couple of weeks.
• Maintain oral hygiene as per doctors advise to avoid infections.
• Avoid strenuous activities.
• It is important to attend the follow-up appointments with your doctor to keep your track of your progress.