Partial removal of the buccal fat

Abstract

The oval shape of the face may be lost on its lower por-tion, on both sides of the face in young, mature, or old people. This aesthetic defect is named jowls. Jowls may be of different kinds: 1. They may be due to a pure buccal fat ptosis without subcutaneous fat accumulation and this is treated by buccal fat extraction only.2. Buccal fat ptosis may be associated with a localized fatty subcutaneous accumulation and buccal fat ex-traction has to be associated with liposuction of this fatty accumulation also responsible for these jowls. 3. Another kind of jowls may be due only to a localized subcutaneous accumulation of fat and this aesthetic anomaly is treated by localized liposuction. 4. Finally jowls may be due to a simple localized or generalized skin excess on the lower face without lo-calized subcutaneous fat accumulation or buccal fat ptosis (pseudojowls or false jowls). © Springer-Verlag 2008.