Being an outpatient procedure, it can be easily performed at your surgeon’s office and you don’t need to get hospitalized. First, a topical anesthesia is applied to the skin. This ensures that you do not go through any pain or discomfort during the surgery. The doctor will then use a small biopsy instrument to make a hole in your facial skin to manually create a dimple by removing a small amount of muscle and fat from the area. The area is about 2 to 3 millimeters in length. Once space is created then the doctor positions a suture from one side of the cheek muscle to the other. The suture is then tied to set the dimple permanently in place.
– It is advisable to use ice packs for 2-3 days in order to heal the swelling.
– One can resume a normal diet after the procedure.
– Patients are advised excessive facial animation to expedite resolution of edema.
– Dimples tend to show up in rest or in animation for 6 to 8 weeks then gradually disappear and only show up thereafter naturally during facial movements.
– The follow up of the patients ranges from 3 weeks to 4 years.
– By the end of 3 months after the surgery, there comes a small hint of a dimple.
– With time, the small dent gradually vanishes leaving a definite dent behind which becomes visible naturally during facial movements.