Chin & Cheek Implants
Restore a naturally appealing harmony to facial features
Balance, proportion, and symmetry are hallmarks of an attractive face. If you feel that your chin looks “weak” or your cheeks lack shape and definition, enhancing these features can restore an aesthetically pleasing sense of facial harmony and improve your overall appearance.
Through a relatively straightforward surgery, Dr. Conway can place custom-fitted, solid silicone implants around your existing chin or cheek bones, instantly bringing them into better proportion with your other facial features.
Why consider facial implants?
Facial implants offer a long-lasting solution to improve facial harmony. If you are bothered by the a lack of definition in your jawline or cheeks, undergoing chin or cheek augmentation can help you refine these features and feel more confident in your appearance.
- Key Benefits
- Glossary
- Enhanced Facial Contours: Cheek and chin implants add volume and definition to the cheekbones and jawline.
- Improved Facial Harmony: By adding structure to the cheeks and chin, implants can help balance the appearance of the face.
- Restoration of Lost Volume: Implants can restore lost volume in the cheek area, often due to aging or weight loss, for a fuller, more balanced look.
- Improved Jawline Definition: Chin implants enhance the definition of the jawline, providing a stronger, more defined chin.
- Correcting a Recessed Chin: Chin implants are ideal for correcting a weak or recessed chin, aligning it more proportionately with the rest of the face.
- Customizable Shapes and Sizes: Facial implants are available in various shapes and sizes, ensuring a tailored fit for each individual.
- Long-Lasting Results: Unlike dermal fillers, facial implants provide a permanent solution to achieving fuller cheeks.
- Alloplastic Implants: Artificial implants made from synthetic materials like silicone, commonly used in cheek and chin augmentation.
- Anesthesia: Medication used during surgery to prevent pain; can be either local (numbing a specific area) or general (inducing sleep).
- Biocompatible: A property of materials that are compatible with living tissue, causing no adverse reactions; important for cheek and chin implants.
- Chin Augmentation (Mentoplasty): A cosmetic procedure that involves the use of implants or reshaping of bones to enhance the chin’s size and shape.
- Chin Implant: A surgical implant designed to augment the size and shape of the chin, improving facial symmetry and balance.
- Facial Implants: Artificial devices surgically placed in the face, commonly in the cheeks or chin, to enhance certain facial features.
- Incision: A surgical cut made in the skin; in facial implant surgeries, these are strategically placed to minimize visible scarring.
- Malar Implants: Also known as cheek implants, these are used to add volume and contour to the cheekbones.
- Prosthesis: A general term for a device that replaces or augments a part of the body; in this context, cheek or chin implants.
- Recovery Time: The period post-surgery during which patients heal and may experience swelling, with specific care instructions for optimal healing.
- Silicone Implants: A type of facial implant made from medical-grade silicone, often used for their durability and natural feel.
Why choose Dr. Conway?
Dr. Donald Conway
Dr. Donald Conway’s priority for each patient is a safe procedure, excellent care, and naturally appealing results. He believes that cosmetic surgery results should not look like the result of surgery. In addition to 20+ years of experience as a board certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Conway trained and worked as a medical illustrator, a highly specialized position that helped him develop a thorough knowledge of anatomy as well as a keen sense of symmetry, proportion, and detail. Dr. Conway’s surgical skill and experience combined with his unique artistic abilities help him provide beautiful, more predictable results for each patient.
What do chin and cheek implants feel like?
Facial implants are made from medical-grade solid silicone, a very durable material that is safe to house in the human body. The implants feel very firm, and once healed your implant will feel like a part of your natural bone structure. They are intended to last a lifetime, but just like your bones, facial implants could fracture with severe impact.
At your consultation, Dr. Conway will listen to your preferences for how you would like to look and determine the size and shape of implant that will best meet your goals and provide a natural look.
Combining facial procedures can enhance your results
Many patients who want to enhance their facial features would like to make improvements in more than one area. Combining procedures can actually benefit a patient, providing a more comprehensive enhancement and achieving a beautiful sense of proportion to the face during a single operation. While Dr. Conway customizes a procedure plan for each patient, these are some of the more common procedure combinations he performs for his Asheville cosmetic surgery patients:
- Chin implant + neck liposuction. Reducing fullness beneath the chin with neck liposuction may provide a more refined jawline than a chin implant alone.
- Rhinoplasty + chin implant. Many patients choose to refine the shape of their nose and chin at the same time to achieve a superb facial harmony.
- Facelift + cheek or chin implants. Inserting cheek or chin implants during facelift surgery can help achieve more youthful, refined facial contours.
About the facial implant procedure
Your cheek or chin augmentation surgery will take place in our fully accredited, private surgery center in Asheville. Depending on the case, Dr. Conway may use local anesthesia, intravenous sedation, or general anesthesia. The latter two are provided by a board certified MD anesthesiologist.
For chin implant surgery, Dr. Conway makes a small incision either underneath the chin or inside the mouth. Through this incision, he creates a space between the facial tissues and chin bone and inserts the chin implant the two of you selected prior to surgery. The incision is closed with sutures. You will be able to go home shortly after your chin augmentation procedure.
Cheek implant surgery follows similar steps. Incisions are located inside the mouth, behind each cheek, so there will be no visible scarring on the face. Through these incisions, Dr. Conway places the cheek implant beneath the soft facial tissues and around the cheekbones. Incisions are closed with sutures.
Recovery after chin or cheek augmentation surgery
Most patients enjoy a relatively quick, smooth recovery following chin or cheek augmentation surgery. Pain is rarely an issue after these procedures. Soreness, bruising and swelling are more common. Dr. Conway can prescribe pain medication to help offset any discomfort during the early days of your recovery; however, most patients find they need prescription pain medication for a very short period, if at all.
If incisions are located inside the mouth, you should stick to a liquid diet for the first 24 hours after surgery. After that, soft foods are recommended for several more days until your incisions have healed adequately. Swelling and bruising typically subside within 2 weeks of surgery, and many patients feel ready to go out in public after just a few days.
You should be able to resume light activity, including non-strenuous work, within 1 week, and gradually return to exercise after 2 to 3 weeks. Sports or other activities that risk facial contact should be avoided for at least 6 weeks after chin or cheek implant surgery. Dr. Conway will provide you with detailed instructions for recovery at your consultations before surgery.
Would you like to learn more about your options to enhance your facial features and look your best? Please call or contact us today. At a personal consultation, Dr. Conway will take the time to listen to your goals and concerns and help you understand what’s possible to help you achieve your goals.
References »
Cleveland Clinic. Cheek Implants: Types, Surgery & Recovery, What To Expect. 11/17/2023. Accessed 7/17/2024.
John Hopkins Medicine. Cheek Implants. Accessed 7/17/2024.
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