This is a questions I answered for someone that was wondering what option there were for sunken cheeks besides temporary Facial Fillers. Fat Transfer or Facial Implants can give you the long term volume you desire in the cheek.
Sunken cheeks is a natural aging process. When you age you lose fat in your cheeks and this can lead to your tissues descending, wrinkles developing, folds developing, lower eyelid fat protruding, eyelid bags, etc. Dermal fillers like restylane, juvederm, radiesse, perlane, are temporary and last from 6 months to a year or more. Of these fillers radiesse is a bone product made up of calcium hydroxyapatite while the others are made up of hyuloronic acid. There are more permanent fillers like silicone injections, and artefill. The problem with permanent fillers is that they have the potential to cause infections, scarring and granulomas (balls of chronic infection) that can present years later after you think everything is okay.
Other more permanent options for sunken cheeks include fat injections and silicone implants. Silicone is very compatible to place in the cheeks. The silicone atom is one step below carbon on the atomic chart and hence makes it really compatible. The infection rate with silicone is very low and its use has a long history of safety. Silicone implants can be placed within the cheek to give a person a more permanent volumizing and lift up sunken cheeks.
Fat injections are another way of volumizing the cheek. Perrmanency depends on whether the fat survives. This depends on many factors: technique, health of the patient, care of the patient after the procedure, etc. If fat lasts for more than 6 months to a year, it will likely survive for many years sometimes 10-15 years or longer.
I refined an amazing volumizing procedure called “the YoungLift”. This is an innovative technique that volumizes your face to bring out the younger and natural you without looking like you had something done. This is not a facelift and requires no incisions. Only pinpoint puncture sites are used and these heal imperceptibly. The YoungLift can be done without general anesthesia and without drains, and large bandages. You also have a lot less downtime and discomfort compared with traditional facelift procedures. I employ the very best techniques from around the world into one volumizing procedure and I use my internationally acclaimed understanding of facial beauty to create the youthful volume you once had.
Dr Young is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington