Cheek implants in Turkey

Cheek implants are solid, shaped pieces placed over the cheekbone or just below it, almost always through incisions inside the upper lip so nothing shows on the face. They add permanent projection to the midface, which is the part fillers rebuild temporarily and repeatedly.

Where the implant sits decides what it does. Over the bone it raises the cheekbone itself. Below the bone it fills the hollow that runs from the cheekbone towards the corner of the mouth. Along the lower eye socket it addresses the shadow under the eye. A consultation that does not distinguish between those three has not planned anything.

Filler is the usual first step, and it is a reasonable one. It takes minutes, needs no anaesthetic, and it is reversible, which means a bad result can be dissolved. What it is not is permanent: it is absorbed and repeated, and over many years the running cost overtakes surgery. Repeatedly injecting large volumes into the midface also has its own well-recognised problems.

Fat transfer uses your own tissue and can give a softer result, but how much of it survives varies from person to person and a second session is common. An implant is one operation, sits on bone, does not move with weight change, and can be removed or exchanged. The honest way to choose is by how permanent you want the answer to be, and by whether the problem is bone or soft tissue.

1. 1

   Assessment and planning

   The surgeon examines the midface, the eye socket rim and the soft tissue, and for a custom implant orders a scan. This is where malar, submalar or rim, and stock or custom, is decided.
2. 2

   General anaesthetic

   Cheek implants are placed asleep, often alongside other facial work.
3. 3

   Intraoral incision

   An incision inside the upper lip avoids any scar on the face. Some rim implants are placed through a lower eyelid incision instead, which the surgeon should explain.
4. 4

   Creating the pocket

   A pocket is made directly on the bone. The infraorbital nerve, which supplies sensation to the cheek, upper lip and side of the nose, runs through this area and is identified and protected.
5. 5

   Positioning and fixation

   The implant is placed and fixed with screws. Symmetry is judged on the table, and fixation is what stops it drifting afterwards.
6. 6

   Closure

   Absorbable sutures inside the mouth, and a supportive dressing for the first days.

• Sort your dental health first. The route is intraoral, and an untreated tooth or gum disease raises infection risk unnecessarily.
• Decide stock or custom early. A custom implant needs a scan and weeks of manufacture and cannot be arranged after you land.
• Ask when you may fly. Midface and eye swelling peak in the first days and a long flight in that window is uncomfortable.
• Ask who handles infection at home. It is the complication most likely to appear after you return, and it can mean removing the implant.
• Ask what else is being done. Cheek, chin and jaw implants are often sold as one package. Each should be its own line, and each adds anaesthetic time.

• Ask how much midface implant work they do. Not facial surgery in general. The infraorbital nerve and the lower eyelid are the reasons this is a subspecialty.
• Ask which zone they are treating. Malar, submalar or rim. If the answer is vague, the plan is vague.
• Ask how the implants are fixed. And what they do if one drifts or the sides do not match.
• Ask for six month results. Photographs at two weeks show midface swelling, which flatters cheekbones more than any implant does.
• Ask what they would decline. A descended midface, active gum disease and an expectation drawn from filtered images are all reasons to say no.