Buccal Fat Removal Recovery Time

Case photographs

Two Rewind cheeks, photographed once the swelling had left

Neither of these after frames belongs to the first weeks. Both were taken once soft tissue had settled over the emptied pocket, which is the only point at which a cheek is worth comparing with its own pre-operative photograph. The procedures listed under each pair also matter to recovery: a session that suctioned fat under the jaw brings its own healing schedule alongside the intraoral wound.

BEFOREAFTER

single procedure

Buccal fat removal alone, photographed after the swelling had settled

Individual results may vary.

BEFOREAFTER

combined session

Jaw line and double-chin liposuction with platysma tightening, buccal fat removal and cheek liposuction

Individual results may vary.

Rewind patients, photographed at the clinic at both visits and published without retouching. A recovery schedule belongs to the person who followed it, and yours depends on your own healing, on what else was done in the session and on how closely the instructions are kept. Bleeding, infection, swelling that outstays the usual pattern, altered sensation, asymmetry between the sides and scarring at the closure are possible after any operation.

In sequence

From the end of the buccal fat operation to the week you forget about it

Six stages, in the order they arrive. The first three are governed by the clinic's written instructions; the last three are about judgement, including the judgement to call the clinic early.

01Leaving

The first hours after the cheek is closed

You rest at the clinic before leaving, with the inside of the cheek carrying a small closed wound and nothing on the outside of the face. Because the approach is intraoral there is no dressing, no shaved area and no drain, so leaving looks unremarkable to anyone watching.

02Day one

Brushing is allowed, and food stays soft

Rewind permits tooth brushing on the day of surgery and asks for soft food until the following day, with the mouth kept clean using whatever rinse the clinic provides. Keeping the wound clean matters more here than anywhere else, since it sits in the one part of the body that is never sterile.

03First week

Three movements stay off the list

Opening the mouth wide, chewing hard food and blowing the cheeks out are each asked to wait for a period after surgery. They pull directly on a closure that is holding a pocket shut, which is the reason the restriction is written around movement as much as around days.

04Weeks

Swelling leaves unevenly, and the sides disagree

One cheek commonly settles before the other, and a face can read fuller than it did before surgery while that is happening. Asymmetry during this stage is usual; asymmetry that is still obvious once the swelling has gone is a subject for the surgeon at review.

05Reviews

Follow-up without a suture removal visit

Since the closure dissolves, the visits that follow are about how the mucosa and the swelling are settling. Dates are set inside the written plan, and returning to sport, to heat and to an unrestricted diet is confirmed at those visits, once the surgeon has seen how the healing is going.

06Call us

What should not be waited out

Bleeding that restarts, swelling that grows after it had begun to fall, fever, spreading pain on one side, a bad taste with discharge from the wound, or difficulty opening the mouth that worsens rather than eases. Any of these is a reason to contact the clinic on the day, in your own language.

Published rates

What the operation behind this recovery is listed at

Recovery is shaped by what was done in the session, so the rate list is worth reading beside it. The first two lines are the same excision quoted two ways; the third adds a second healing area under the jaw, with dressings and bruising the pad alone does not bring.

List prices with VAT excluded, each containing the anaesthetic fee for that operation. Follow-up reviews are arranged inside the plan written at consultation, and no charge or appointment attaches to suture removal, since the closure dissolves on its own.

Week by week

The buccal fat recovery schedule, as Rewind writes it

The clinic's own instructions cover the first days in detail and then hand the schedule to your follow-up reviews. The stages below keep to what is published, so they describe behaviour, and no number here counts down to a finish line.

Surgery of any kind can be followed by bleeding, infection, swelling that outstays the usual pattern, altered sensation, asymmetry between the two sides and scarring at the closure, and injury to structures neighbouring the pocket is a recognised risk of cheek surgery. Tell the surgeon about every medication you take and every previous facial or dental procedure before a date is agreed, and contact the clinic on the day if pain, swelling or bleeding increases after it had started to settle.

Questions

Recovering from buccal fat removal — what patients ask