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Masculinizing the male face is typically about augmenting the skeletal contours of the three facial thirds. This includes the linear lines of the brow bones, cheeks and jawline. Today this is possible because of custom implant designs which make brow bone augmentation possible (which never was), cheek augmentation more specific (high cheekbone look) and jawline augmentation more complete and significant in effect.

Up to the present time, facial masculinization was limited to chin augmentation mainly and jaw angle implants rarely. (lower facial third enhancement) The concept of upper and middle third facial augmentations was not only not possible but rarely appreciated as having value. Injectable fillers have helped expand the possibilities of voluminization at all three facial levels. (particularly the jawline and cheeks) As patients have appreciated the change from injectable fillers they often seek a more permanent augmentation effect.

The most common male masculinization implants is that of the cheeks and jawline. Very often the patient has an existing chin implant as their initial foray into improving their facial contours. The extension into the rest of the jawline is a natural extension of the existing chin implant. Extending the augmentation effect to then entire jawline provides a more complete and effective lower third facial reshaping procedure. Typical jawline implants volumes are in the 18 to 24cc range.

It is the cheeks for men that has become a relatively new procedure due to the ability to create a midface masculinizing look. Traditional cheek implants have a feminizing effect by creating anterior fullness. (apple cheeks) But having a high linear cheek effect that goes along the natural linear infraorbital-malar line the face is lifted and made more angular. Such cheek implants are not necessarily bigger in volume (usually averaging around 4ccs) but it is how the volume is dispersed along the surface area of the cheeks.

Custom cheek and jawline implants are typically designed together as well as surgically placed concurrently. They are often combined with defatting procedures of the face and neck such as buccal lipectomies and perioral and submental/neck liposuction. Reducing the soft tissue  fullness above and below the lines of skeletal augmentation has an obvious synergistic effect.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana

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