Maxfacts

Cheeks

Treatments for postoperative problems affecting the cheeks include:

• Scars. Most facial surgical scars are designed to lie in natural skin folds or resting skin tension lines, which allows them to be very effectively hidden. If there are visible scars, conventional scar revision techniques can be used for corrections.
• Large areas of skin loss may require reconstruction with flaps or grafts.
• Altered sensation if underlying nerves (infraorbital, zygomatico-facial and zygomatico-temporal branches of the trigeminal nerve) are damaged are treated in the same way as many other treatment approaches for neuropathies.
• Hypo- and hyperpigmentation of skin grafts and/or scars may be helped by cosmetics for camouflage, or by surgical dermatography (medical tattooing).
• Buccal mucosa. In very rare cases such as syndromes in people who have no sensation of pain, mouth-guards made of silicone have been used.