How Can I Fix Cheek Defects After Zygomatic Sandwich Osteotomies?

Q: Dr. Eppley,  I previously had Zygomatic Sandwich Osteotomies which left my cheeks very irregular. I would like to ask if its possible to use an off the shelf implant and place it over the cheek defects to cover it to act like a cover basically.   Or this has to be custom implant? The depth of the defects are around 2mm which is significant in my opinion but my previous surgeon believed that this shouldn’t be visible on the skin surface.

A: You certainly could use an off-the -shelf implant to cover over the defects if you weren’t opposed to an implant.  A thin 2mm implant is what you would need to do so.

2mms doesn’t sound like much but in the cheeks that is more than enough to be seen.

Dr. Barry Eppley

World-Renowned Plastic Surgeon