Category: cheek reduction | technical strategies

Technical Strategies – Percutaneous Zygomatic Arch Osteotomy Technique

Cheekbone reduction is a common facial reshaping surgery to help narrow the wide midface. It achieves this effect by bringing inward the convexity of the zygomatic arch. Through an intraoral anterior osteotomy through the zygomatic body and an osteotomy through the posterior process of the zygomatic arch before it attaches to the temporal bone through Read More…

Technical Strategies – Trancoronal Approach for Cheekbone Osteotomies and Reconstruction

Cheekbone reduction is a well known facial reshaping procedure used to narrow the width of the midface. (sides of the cheeks or zygomatic arches) It is done by a combination of an anterior mid cheek osteotomy and a posterior zygomatic arch osteotomy. Numerous variations of these osteotomy patterns have been described to allow the bone Read More…

Plastic Surgery Case Study – Excision of a Traumatic Zygomatic Arch Osteoma

Background: Osteomas are well known benign bony growths which can occur from within, on or even outside of the bone in the surrounding soft tissues. In the craniofacial skeleton, osteomas usually occur as a peripheral lesion arising from the periosteum. While there are multiple etiologies for them the most recognized is that of trauma. The Read More…

Cheekbone Reduction – Intraoral vs Coronal Approach

Cheekbone reduction, also known as reduction malarplasty, is one of the most popular Asian facia contouring procedures. While high popular in such countries as South Korea and China, it remains a very infrequently performed procedure in the U.S. The obvious reason is the difference between Asian and Caucasian facial shapes as well as the cultural Read More…

Patterns of Cheekbone Reduction Osteotomies

Cheekbone reduction is the only facial reshaping procedure in which one reduce the size or width of their cheekbones. It is essentially an inward repositioning of the zygomatic arch which acts like a bridge over the temporalis muscle as it descends to attach to the coronoid process of the lower jaw. The arch bone has Read More…

The Posterior Zygomatic Arch Osteotomy in Cheekbone Reduction (Facial Width Reduction)

The cheekbone occupies a significant part of the midface. It is responsible for the projection and width of the side of the face. The name of the bone, the zygomatic-orbital complex, speaks for the main body of bone and the legs of bone that extend underneath the eye, down onto the maxilla and back towards Read More…

Beveled Posterior Zygomatic Arch Osteotomy in Cheekbone Reduction

Narrowing the wide midface can be done only by bringing in the width of the zygomatic arches. The shape and convexity of the zygomatic arch, like a spanning bridge, is what creates the width of the face between the temporal regions of the head and the lower jawline. Moving this portion of the cheek in Read More…

Technical Strategies – Transcoronal Approach for Posterior Zygomatic Arch Osteotomy

Cheekbone reduction by osteotomies is the only surgical method for narrowing a wide face. While most commonly performed on Asian patients all around the world, I have done an equal number on other ethnicities as well. By performing a bone cut through the main body of the cheek (zygoma) and at the back end of Read More…

Posterior Maxillary Reduction for Lower Cheek Fullness after Large LeFort I Advancements

The LeFort I osteotomy is the most common midface bony procedure and has been a staple in orthognathic surgery for over a half decade. With a horizontal osteotomy line above the level of the teeth and across the base of the nose, the upper jaw is mobilized and moved in a variety of dimensional changes Read More…

OR Snapshots – Posterior Cheekbone Reduction Osteotomy

Reduction of prominent cheekbones requires some form of bone reduction. While some may think that shaving or burring can reduce the width of the cheekbones, this is largely an ineffective technique. This is because the only portion of the cheekbone that is accessible for shaving is the most anterior portion right below the eye. This Read More…