Dimple surgery in Turkey

The single most important decision is where the dimple is placed, and it is made before any anaesthetic. Natural dimples sit at a point relative to the corner of the mouth and the cheekbone, and they move with the smile. A dimple placed too high, too low or too far from the mouth reads as wrong even when it is technically well made.

Ask to have the point marked on your face in the mirror while you smile, and look at it from several angles before agreeing. This is the one part of the operation you can influence completely, and the one part that cannot be corrected without a second procedure.

• One dimple or two

  Both are done. Two rarely match exactly, and natural dimples do not match either. Decide whether a single dimple would satisfy you before you add the second.

• Fuller cheeks

  The tether has more to pull against, so the dimple tends to hold. This is the anatomy the operation was designed for.

• Thin face, little cheek fat

  A dimple can look like a dent rather than a dimple, and it can be more visible at rest. The surgeon should say so if this applies to you.

• Wants a certain look

  Not available from this operation. The result is a maturing scar, and scars are individual. If certainty is the requirement, this is the wrong procedure to plan around.

For the cheek's shape rather than a dimple in it, see buccal fat removal or cheek implants, and for the mouth itself see lip lift.

1. 1

   Marking with you smiling

   The position is chosen with you upright and smiling, marked, and shown to you. Nothing is done until you have agreed the point.
2. 2

   Local anaesthetic

   Injected inside the cheek. General anaesthetic is not usually needed and its use for this procedure is worth questioning.
3. 3

   A small opening inside the mouth

   Made on the inner surface of the cheek. There is no cut on the face.
4. 4

   Creating the tether

   A small amount of tissue is removed or freed between the inner cheek and the skin, and a stitch is placed to draw the skin inward at the marked point.
5. 5

   Closing inside the mouth

   Dissolving stitches. Eating is restricted to soft food briefly and mouth rinses matter, because the wound is in the mouth.
6. 6

   Weeks to months

   Swelling settles, the stitch loosens, the scar matures and the dimple softens. Its final character is set by your own scarring, not by the surgeon.

• Anyone who wants certainty. The result is a maturing scar and scars are individual. This is not an operation with a predictable appearance.
• Anyone who cannot accept a static dimple. It may soften into a dynamic one and it may not. If a dimple at rest would bother you, do not proceed.
• Anyone with poor mouth hygiene or active dental infection. The wound is intra-oral and the infection risk follows.
• Anyone who forms thick scars. The operation relies on scar behaving predictably, and yours may not.
• Anyone who has not seen the position marked on their own face. This is the decision that matters and it cannot be made from a photograph of someone else.

• One dimple or two. Priced per side, and two rarely match exactly, which is worth knowing before doubling the cost.
• Anaesthetic. Local anaesthetic is usual. If general anaesthetic is proposed, ask why.
• Setting. This is a clinic procedure. A hospital stay is not usually needed and should not be in the quote.
• Whether it is combined with other facial work. Done alongside another procedure it is often a line item rather than a separate visit.
• Aftercare and review. Mouth rinses, the review appointment and what is covered if the result needs adjusting.
• What a repeat or release would cost. Ask now. Fading and static dimples are the two reasons people come back.

The clinic listing on this page shows each clinic's current price with a note of what it covers. For instalments, see payment plans. For the cheek's shape rather than a dimple see buccal fat removal and cheek implants.