I'm wondering what can be done to treat the shadows in my lower cheek (buccal) area? (Photo)

There are a variety of fillers that could be used to treat shadows or hollow areas of the cheeks including Radiesse, Voluma, Sculptra and Bellafill. Costs and longevity will vary for each product.

morpheus, threads, sculptra/fillers, thermage can all be used to help tighten the skin of this area. you will need a combination approach as this is loose skin.

most of my younger patients do buccal fat pad reduction, facetite/liposuction of the neck, and fillers to chin/cheeks/jawline/temples,  to give them a more chiseled face.  see my IG and links. at home derma-rolling should be started to Improve texture and tone and tightening along jawline (see link where we have a recommended daily skincare and weekly emerage + anteageMD derma-rolling protocol).

For facial slimming a combination of treatments are always needed. Options include:

1. Buccal fat pad removal to reduce fat on the lower face
2. Facetite or Renuvion/J Plasma to tighten the lower face, jawline, and chin to reduce fat and give the jawline and neck tightening and shaping.
3. Botox to the masseter to reduce the muscular size of the jaw giving the face an illusion of being more slender
4. Fillers to the jawline, chin, cheeks, temples and brow help to shape the face and make it more angled and defined

most of my younger patients consider...
5. deep microneelding RF like morpheus every 2-3 months forever to further improvement tightening
6. early face/neck lift if you want a really tight contour and the most extreme improvement in jawline and neck shaping
7. threads, PDO or Instalift, after neck surgery/facetite to further improve the outcomes and give them long term collagen production and shaping
8. Thermage (radio frequency heating) and Ultherapy (ultrasound muscle tightening) yearly to prevent sagging in the future

See an expert who does facial shaping with surgical and non surgical methods to get a comprehensive option. Best, Dr. Emer.

Hi there! Thanks so much for your question. Actually, either filler or Sculptra would be appropriate for this area. Both options have their pros and cons. The advantage to Sculptra is that it would be more natural-looking, and probably less expensive, given the size of the area that needs to be treated. Also, it would last 2 years versus 1 year for filler. You are young, so I suspect that you would not need many treatments to achieve your desired result. Most likely two sessions of Sculptra would do the trick. As you may know, Sculptra takes time to build collagen, so you would not see your results for 12-18 weeks. The advantage to filler is that it is immediate, so you would have your results instantly. Filler however, can look bulky and sometimes lumpy in this area, so it needs to be injected with a little more TLC. Filler would last about a year and again, given the size of the area, it would probably require at least 3-4 syringes to cover the area and make it blend nicely, so that can get pricey. The good news is that you have some really great options to treat your concern. Good luck!

If you're really not happy with your buccal hollows, I would definitely recommend that you have fat grafting. When a plastic surgeon with a lot of experience, performs fat grafting to the face, the results should be natural and practically permanent. Many other fillers and sculptra can also be used, but nothing is better than your own fat. I hope this helps and good luck from New York City plastic surgery