Buccal Fat Removal Is Becoming A Popular Cosmetic Procedure, But Here's Why You Might Regret It Later

It's hard to be fully content with the way you look in 2023, especially if you spend any time at all on social media. It feels like the celebrities and influencers are becoming more and more beautiful each year, impossibly so, and much of that has to do with the fact that they're all getting sneaky plastic surgery done to look their very best. Few of these women will admit to the procedures they've had done and most of them, such as Bella Hadid and Khloe Kardashian, will outright deny that they've had extensive work done to sculpt and carve out the face and body you see on camera today. Girls are using social media at a younger age every year and there are countless women out there who struggle with self-esteem after watching their favorite influencers live out a perfect life with their perfect body on Instagram—and yet most of these public figures are just maintaining a specifically curated brand for everyone to see that isn't even real life.

Cosmetic surgeries are becoming more common as the years go on, whether it's liposuction, breast implants, a nose job, or the threading surgery that gives women the mysterious fox look (ahem, Kendall Jenner). According to the Cleveland Clinic, providers do more than 15 million cosmetic surgeries in the US each year. Women get 92% of the cosmetic surgeries, and the age group that gets the most procedures is 40-54. But there are women as young as 18 years old getting Brazilian butt lifts and lip fillers these days. Kylie Jenner was certainly a teenager when she had her lips done, and people hardly bat an eye anymore when young women get plastic surgery or cosmetic procedures before their brain has even fully developed. Buccal fat removal is growing in popularity and many celebrities are sporting the results of the procedure on the red carpet and TikTok, resulting in many women asking their plastic surgeon for the same sculpted look. But there are many things to consider before you opt in for buccal fat removal, because you may end up regretting it later if you don't think about it long and hard.

What Is Buccal Fat Removal?

You've seen it before even if you didn't realize it. Stars like Bella Hadid, Sophie Turner, and Lea Michele look mysteriously chiseled and toned, and it's not because of face yoga. They're getting buccal fat removal, a procedure that produces a more contoured face by removing the fat between your cheekbones and jaw bones, which is where you buccal fat resides. This cosmetic surgery is also called a cheek reduction and it gives you a hollowed-out area between your cheek and jaw. Bella Hadid's transformation in the span of just a couple years is the perfect example of what buccal fat removal can do to the face.

There's no doubt that Bella looks beautiful now (even though she was certainly gorgeous before as well), but there's something mesmerizing about her face that just wasn't present before her buccal fat removal. Her face is sculpted and always ready for a camera. Of course she has had a plethora of other work done, including a nose job (which is the only cosmetic work she has admitted to), the threading lift (which creates the fox-like face), lip fillers, etc. But the buccal fat removal is arguably the single most drastic thing she has ever done to her face, and it helped propel her to into supermodel status.

Chrissy Teigen, model and wife of John Legend, has admitted to having buccal fat removal on her Instagram story. Once you know she's had it done, it's impossible to miss every time you see her photos or videos.

Buccal fat removal is what apparently removes the "baby face" appearance by taking away the fullness of the cheeks that can give people a more pronounced look of youth. During the procedure, you get a local anesthetic to numb your skin and you remain awake during the whole thing (but if you're getting additional work done, it's not uncommon to go under general anesthesia). The surgeon will make a small incision on the inside of your mouth on both sides of the face to expose the buccal fat pads, then they will press on the pads to expose them more before cutting and removing them. The incisions are closed with dissolvable sutures. Healing time is usually about 3 weeks but it's said that you won't fully see the results for several months. You'll experience swelling, bruising, and numbness at the incision sites after the surgery, but these should fade away as you heal.

What Are the Risks of Buccal Fat Removal?

Every cosmetic procedure has some kind of risk to it, and buccal fat removal is no different. Some common risks associated with the surgery include infection at the incision site, injury to your facial nerves or salivary duct, numbness, or asymmetry of the face. Plastic surgeon Dr. Steven M. Levine told People that there is very low risk to the procedure, which has been around for about 50 years, and that the risks of infection or nerve damage are "extremely low."

"As with most things in plastic surgery, the outcome of the procedure depends on surgical judgment," he said. "That includes choosing the right patient for the procedure and deciding how much of the fat pad to remove. As we age, we lose fat in our faces. For this reason, the surgeon and the patient need to ensure that any young person undergoing buccal fat removal is a good candidate for the treatment and won't regret not having that fat later in life. Older patients with prominent buccal fat pads can proceed with less concern about their future facial changes."

If you deal with excessive bleeding, any sign of infection, or abnormal taste in your mouth after the surgery, you should go see your doctor immediately. Some very serious side effects include chest pain and shortness of breath, for which you should call 911 right away.

Is Buccal Fat Removal Worth It?

The surgery could cost anywhere from a few grand to $10,000, depending on what kind of surgeon you're seeing, so it's certainly an investment. As cosmetic surgeries become more and more popular, we have to really ask ourselves if it's worth it. Women are getting these procedures done at younger ages every year, but we all know that we sometimes don't make great choices in our youth, whether it's an impulsive tattoo or a breast enhancement because you feel insecure about your cup size.

Something that all women should consider before opting in for buccal fat removal is the fact that the fat in your face will change over time as you age. Plus, when you get your buccal fat removed via surgery, that fat doesn't replenish so if your face starts to change to the point where you want your cheeks to look fuller again, you'll have to get another procedure done eventually to restore the fullness of your face. Besides, as we age, we want some fullness to our face, because the more gaunt you look, the older you look. POPSUGAR interviewed an anonymous woman who got buccal fat removal at 20 years old, but regretted it eventually because she ended up looking older than her mother.

"Now that I'm approaching 30, it's only gotten worse. The soft, feminine curve of my face has been replaced by uneven, 'baggy'-looking cheeks," she said.

A pillar of femininity is softness; that's part of what makes us beautiful to men (it's no wonder why so many of the women who get buccal fat removal start to look like the men who call themselves trans women). If we opt in for surgeries at a young age that make our faces look more chiseled and sculpted, that will certainly have an effect on what we look like in the future, eventually making us look more masculine and even more saggy in the long run. And although you might be happy with how buccal fat removal looks today, you might seriously regret the procedure when you realize the work it takes to re-fill your cheeks after you reach a certain age and your face looks too sharp. You can do fat grafting or replacement fillers if you wish, but you might also have to get a facelift too to correct the shape of your cheeks and jawline.

It's easy to fall prey to all the innovations in plastic surgery, especially when you see all the influencers and celebrities getting these procedures done in the name of empowerment and self-love. But it's always a good idea to think twice—or more—and consider the longterm. Our faces naturally change over time, and aging is a natural process that can be done gracefully and beautifully if we take care of ourselves and allow our body to accept the passing of time. Trends come and go, but your face will be your unique face until the day you die, so just be absolutely sure that you're ready for the lifelong consequences of something like buccal fat removal.