Which Procedure First? Mini Facelift or Cheek Implant Surgery?

Cheek implants for under developed cheeks and mini lift are usually done together. If you still want them done separately do the cheek implants first.

It is best to perform cheek implants first since it is stretching the skin forward and you may not need a mini lift so soon.  A mini lift is going to remove any early excess skin and jowling in the face while the cheek implant just simply augments the front part of the cheek since they are quite flat.  Both operations could also be performed at the same time conservatively by a single surgeon.

Ideally these procedures would be combined into a single surgery. That minimizes your cost, number of anesthetic events and downtime. If you definitely need to have two separate surgeons for the two procedures you could inquire whether they could both participate in your surgery. This would require them to have privileges at the same surgery center. Otherwise, as Dr. Mayer suggested, the cheek implants would ideally be placed during the first procedure to add or replace volume in your midface. I hope this information is helpful.Stephen Weber MD, FACS