Dr. Joel Aronowitz - Buccal Fat - To Remove or Not to Remove Buccal Fat? Dr. Aronowitz has the answer!
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| Dr. Joel Aronowitz |
Dr. Joel Aronowitz: “ Hi, I'm Dr. Joel Aronowitz, Board Certified Plastic Surgeon here in Los Angeles. Let's talk about buccal fat today. The anatomy, the reality of buccal fat, and some of the cosmetic things we're doing with buccal fat nowadays.
What is buccal fat? Buccal fat is the small fat pad that's in our cheek. It's what makes a baby's cheeks round and it sometimes makes an adult's cheeks a little too round and full. The buccal fat, if you put your tongue up against the inside of your mouth,
Right here, the buccal fat is right there and just behind it a little bit. We have buccal fat because we need something to cause a little fullness here and anatomists, people that study anatomy and physiology, believe that that fat is necessary so that when a baby is suckling for milk, they're able to create an adequate amount of suction from the musculature of the cheek.
So, it serves that purpose. Of course, we can use buccal fat for other purposes later on, but the physiologic purpose of buccal fat is probably related to nursing. Buccal fat removal is performed in order to correct an excess fullness in this part of the cheek, and that can occur either because of age and that bucchal fat is sagging and coming forward, creating an excess jowliness and fullness down here, or because that person just happens to have that shaped face and wants a more sculpted-looking lower face.
By removing the buccal fat, we can create the more sculpted look. What are the downsides to removing buccal fat? Number one, you might not be happy with that hollowness that can be created when buccal fat is removed, either right away or in ensuing years as a person ages,
The removal of that buccal fat can create a real hollowness down here in the cheeks that accentuates the sometimes gaunt look that we see with aging changes. The other reason for not removing buccal fat is that buccal fat can be used in reconstructive dental surgery. For oral and maxillofacial surgery, when a well-vascularized area of fat is necessary to correct infection or a non-healing area or an area that had to be removed for one reason or another, cancer, radiation changes,
That buccal fat is a well-vascularized tissue that can be repurposed by an oral and maxillofacial surgeon for reconstruction inside the mouth. Well, I hope you enjoyed this little excursion in the area of buccal fat removal. It's something that's very topical today. It's a nice procedure from my point of view, but it's not something you should walk into willy-nilly if it's something you're considering. There are some downstream effects, mostly hollowness in the cheeks.
Complications are rare from this operation if it's done by an experienced practitioner, but I have seen inexperienced surgeons have a lot of trouble finding the buccal fat and causing problems related to the nerves, arteries, and muscles that are in this area of the face. There are a lot of structures that are packed into a tight spot and for a surgeon who's a little less experienced, maybe not as well trained in this particular operation, it can be hazardous. So, thank you for watching this video. I hope you enjoyed our Aronowitzland channel and if you check out our channel, we have a lot of other interesting content both from the patient's point of view as well as the actual surgery videos. So, if that's something you're interested in, check out our videos on Aronowitzland.”
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