Buccal Fat Removal
While full, plump cheeks are a beautiful hallmark of early youth, excess facial fat can create a heavy, rounded facial profile. This localized weight can obscure your natural jawline, camouflage the crisp angles of your cheekbones, and make your lower face look unnecessarily wide. Buccal fat removal, or cheek reduction surgery, provides an elegant solution, slimming down the lower midface to reveal a sleek, structurally balanced reflection.
At Kennedy Facial Plastic Surgery, we approach lower face contouring with technical restraint and artistic precision to provide contouring without overcorrection. Dr. Paige Kennedy brings world-class training from top-tier surgical centers back home to Louisiana. As a double board-certified facial plastic surgeon with a deep understanding of facial anatomy and proportion, she evaluates your facial bone structure, skin thickness, and natural aging timeline to customize exactly how much fat is safely removed. If you are ready to learn how this brief, hidden procedure can elevate your facial symmetry, we welcome you to schedule a personal consultation at our comfortable Breaux Bridge practice.
Reduces excessive lower cheek fullness, enhances the visibility of high cheekbones, and highlights a slender, structured jawline.
The highly precise, straightforward procedure is exceptionally efficient, taking roughly thirty minutes to complete.
Most patients experience minimal downtime, returning comfortably to a normal routine within three to five days.
Permanently removes targeted internal fat cells to deliver a sculpted lower face contour that endures over time.
Buccal fat removal is a specialized cosmetic surgery designed to reduce the size of the buccal fat pad located in the lower midface. Unlike the superficial subcutaneous fat that sits directly beneath your skin surface, this deep fat pad is nestled deep beneath the facial muscles and adjacent to the parotid duct. Because it occupies a distinct anatomical pocket, it reacts very little to traditional weight loss efforts, which is why healthy individuals often struggle with fullness in the lower cheeks despite being physically fit.
This targeted surgical procedure tapers the hollow beneath the cheekbones, creating a subtle, sculpted transition down toward the jawline. It offers a permanent improvement in facial harmony, and it may be performed as an isolated treatment or comfortably integrated with additional procedures. For many mature patients, pairing a buccal lipectomy with a deep plane facelift or submental liposuction maximizes profile definition, delivering a cohesive and naturally attractive balance across the entire lower face.
Cheek reduction is an outpatient procedure that can be performed comfortably under local anesthesia. If you choose to combine your cheek reduction with other surgical procedures, general anesthesia is utilized. To begin the surgical procedure, Dr. Kennedy creates a very small incision, typically one to two centimeters long, inside the mouth on the inner lining of the cheek. Working through this hidden interior opening, she isolates and removes the precise amount of fat needed to achieve your desired degree of lower face slimming while taking extreme care to protect the adjacent facial nerves, blood vessels, and salivary glands. Once the optimal structural balance is achieved, she closes the small internal openings with fine, dissolvable sutures, leaving zero visible external scarring on your face.
Buccal fat pad removal successfully addresses the structural fullness caused by genetic bone structure and localized tissue distribution. Rather than relying on temporary non-surgical treatments like masseter injections, this single surgical procedure addresses specific structural facial concerns:
The goal of buccal fat reduction is to create a beautifully sculpted, long-lasting refinement of your natural lower facial contours. Dr. Kennedy takes a calculated, conservative approach to fat extraction, ensuring your face looks elegantly contoured rather than hollow or gaunt. Because the incisions are located inside the mouth, there is no visible scarring. This treatment provides permanent results, revealing a naturally sculpted jawline and high cheekbone definition, helping you look polished, confident, and camera-ready from every angle.
Cheek reduction is designed for adults with lower cheek fullness, a rounded face shape, or a lack of midface definition. Candidates should be in good overall health, maintain a stable weight, and have realistic expectations for their results. This procedure is often selected by patients in their late 20s, 30s, and 40s whose natural facial fat has fully settled.
If you already have a naturally slender, narrow, or gaunt face, reducing this deep fat pad can create an overly hollow look that is accelerated with facial aging, making you look prematurely older. In these cases, Dr. Kennedy will advise against the surgery. Smoking or using nicotine products severely restricts blood vessels and compromises your inner mouth healing, so you must commit to quitting entirely well before and after surgery. During your personal consultation, Dr. Kennedy will conduct a comprehensive physical evaluation of your soft tissues to determine if this procedure is the safest and most effective way to refine your facial contours.
Immediately following your brief outpatient procedure, you will return home to rest. You will experience mild temporary swelling and light bruising around the jaw and jowls, which typically peaks around day 3 and can make the cheeks look temporarily full, similar to having minor dental work completed.
For the first few days, you will follow a soft diet and use a prescription antibacterial mouthwash after every meal to keep the internal incisions clean and free of food debris. You must sleep face up with your head elevated on a few pillows for the first week to help your body reduce swelling quickly and comfortably. You will avoid hot, spicy foods, sharp, crunchy snacks, and strenuous physical activity for the first 7 days to let the internal stitches heal securely. Most patients return to their normal office schedules and social routines within 3-5 days with zero outward signs of surgery.
As the internal soft tissues fully heal and settle against your underlying bone structure, a beautifully refined lower face contour will emerge. You will enjoy a slender transition beneath your cheekbones and a better-defined jawline that highlights your natural facial architecture.
Because the targeted buccal fat cells are gone permanently, your contoured results are built to stand the test of time. While your face will naturally continue to age over the decades, your lower cheeks will maintain their sleek, tailored proportions as long as you avoid significant weight gain. Maintaining a stable weight and investing in a medical-grade skincare routine will help preserve your sharp, youthful look for the future.
Buccal fat removal requires an experienced touch to create a balanced result that doesn’t lead to an overly hollow work. The delicate task of navigating the inner cheek and protecting the sensitive facial nerves demands the advanced expertise of a focused facial specialist. Dr. Paige Kennedy limits her boutique practice exclusively to facial plastic surgery and head and neck surgery, maintaining an incredibly precise and targeted focus. As the only female facial plastic surgeon in Lafayette, she pairs her world-class credentials with an eye for detail and a commitment to personalized care.
Dr. Kennedy’s clinical background features 10 years of highly competitive postgraduate training at top surgical programs in Houston, Chicago, and Austin. This rich background allowed her to master the most advanced deep tissue sculpting and profile balancing methods available today. Recognized as a Castle Connolly Top Doctor, she is proud to bring top-tier care back home to the Acadiana community.
This is one of the most important considerations when planning a cheek reduction. If too much fat is removed or if the procedure is performed on someone who already has a narrow face, it can cause a gaunt appearance as natural facial volume declines with age. Dr. Paige Kennedy takes an incredibly conservative, artistic approach, thoroughly evaluating your facial anatomy to ensure that removing fat will enhance your long-term harmony without compromising your natural youthfulness.
Most patients need to maintain a soft diet for about 3-5 days after their surgical procedure. You will want to stick to cool, smooth options like smoothies, yogurts, soups, and protein shakes during the first 48 hours to avoid irritating the internal incisions. As your comfort improves and the fine stitches begin to secure themselves, you can gradually transition back to your normal diet, taking care to rinse your mouth out carefully after meals.
Because the buccal fat cells are extracted from their deep anatomical pocket, the results are considered permanent and cannot be reversed. If a patient’s facial contours become overly hollow later in life due to the natural aging process or extreme weight loss, facial volume can be restored using autologous fat transfer or dermal fillers. Choosing a board-certified specialist who prioritizes a conservative approach helps you avoid overcorrection during surgery.
The outpatient procedure is completed under local anesthesia, keeping the area fully numbed so you feel nothing during placement. Post-operative tenderness is easily managed with over-the-counter pain relievers during the first 48 hours.
No, buccal fat removal targets a specific pocket of deep fat in the mid-cheek area, so it cannot reduce fullness caused by enlarged jaw muscles (the masseter muscles) or a heavy bone structure. If your wide jaw is caused by active teeth grinding or muscle hypertrophy, non-surgical treatments like neuromodulator injections are a highly effective alternative. Dr. Kennedy conducts a detailed physical examination to determine if your fullness is muscular or fat-based.
The total cost of a cheek reduction can vary based on several factors, including whether the procedure is performed under local numbing in the office or combined with sedation, and if it is paired with additional treatments like a neck lift or chin implant. Because every treatment plan is customized to your anatomy, we provide a detailed cost summary after your consultation, allowing you to plan your procedure comfortably.
Neck or facial liposuction utilizes a thin cannula to suction away the superficial subcutaneous fat sitting directly beneath the skin surface, making it ideal for clearing away a double chin. Buccal fat removal treats a completely separate, deep, encapsulated fat pad located beneath the facial muscles, which cannot be safely accessed with a traditional liposuction cannula. A buccal lipectomy requires a direct, manual extraction through a small incision inside the mouth.
As with any surgical procedure, potential risks include temporary swelling and bruising, minor asymmetry, localized bleeding, or temporary numbness. Because the buccal fat pad sits in close proximity to the parotid salivary duct and facial nerve branches, serious complications like nerve injury are a risk if the surgery is performed by an inexperienced provider. Choosing an expert, double board-certified facial plastic surgeon ensures your procedure adheres to the highest medical standards of safety and structural accuracy.
