The classic sign of beauty, whether it’s in the male or female face is good bony framework. Bones create beauty and we can look at any number of cover models or people who are considered to have natural beauty and invariably and we see that these patients are endowed with “beautiful bones”. They have well defined high cheekbones, very strong jaw lines, and a well defined chin. In addition they have good dentition that allows for a structural filler for the mid portion of their face.
At times patients are not endowed with natural beauty and either have ill defined or flat cheek bones or ill defined jaw lines, or receding chins that are all due to poorly defined bony framework of their face. Sometimes patients who have poor oral hygiene have restoration of the bones that support the teeth and as a result have a loss of fullness of the skeletal framework of the lower part of the face and this not only is unattractive but may reflect signs of the aging process.
The solution to patients who have ill defined bony structure is very often the use of facial, synthetic implants. These are not dissimilar from, for example, breast implants. Dr Brennan was one of the first to describe the anatomical mid face implant in an article he authored in about 1980. Since then there has been an incredible proliferation of a variety of facial implants for virtually increasing the structure of literally any part of the facial skeleton. This includes the forehead, the cheek bones, the jaw line, and the chin.
These procedure are relatively simple procedures that can be performed at the outpatient center, either under a sedation type of anesthesia or a general anesthetic. Basically the procedure involves making incisions that then allow for the creation of a space over the facial bone that needs to be augmented or made more prominent. The implant is designed both in size, shape, and configuration to then be inserted into the space created. In a sense, this is like putting a hand into a glove. There is no other place for the implant to go, and so the implant is secured in position by virtue of the preparation of the pocket that is designed to receive the implant. The implant usually is made of a bio compatible material, usually a material called cilastic, and it is a material that will not shift, dissolve, disintegrate, or otherwise break.
As a result any facial implant hat is used is very permanent and the patient has a life long advantage of having that structural improvement that is accomplished by using the variety of facial implants. The patient on completion of surgery is transferred to recovery for a short period of time and is then discharged to the patient care taker and the patient is seen the following morning just for a routine check up. It is extremely unusual to have any complications with implant type surgery, but there is always a possibility that the patient has some swelling or bruising but in the vast majority of patients the implant sits in the proper position and becomes a structural advantage and creates and simulates the bony contour that creates facial beauty.