Buccal Fat removal journey

As I mentioned in my previous review, I wanted to wait three months before I gave any stars toward the service I received, as I wanted to give my body time to heal to be able to see the true results, and to just be fair to the process. Well, today marks 3 months since I had my buccle fat removed by Dr. Ort and I’m happy to say I am very pleased with my results! And, I want to particularly mention that I am so happy that I found Dr. Ort—her general professionalism and care for me as a patient has made the world of difference. She is kind, knowledgeable, and has been wonderful to interact with. I sincerely cannot recommend her and her staff enough!
As far as my general feelings about being 3 mos post-op—nothing has really changed from last month to this month, but I realize I didn’t give a two-month update! Whoops!
I think the most drastic changes took place within the first 3 weeks of surgery, and I haven’t really noticed much of a change since I’d say week 7 or 8. When I saw her for my third post-op appointment (2-month) I got after photos taken and addressed my concerns about the “jowl-area” and she was very understanding about how I felt about them, and gave me options for a potential remedy if it continues to bug me. Truthfully, it’s not the end of the world—I do love the slimmer look my face has now and how it’s subtle (although a drastic difference to me), and do not regret the buccle fat procedure one bit, AND I would certainly do it again even if I knew this was going to be the result. The reality is, there is some settling of the skin near my mouth, but it’s not very prominent, and I don’t think most people would notice. Of course, I do, because I’ve been looking at my face more than usual since this procedure, and I would prefer to have my skin taut from my chin to my cheekbones. It’s close, and for now, I will embrace what it is. I’m certainly happy to just have much less volume on the side of my face!
Anyway I am attaching some new recent photos of the results! Reach out with any specific questions! I likely won’t continue to post, but I’ll try to remember to do like a 6 mos PO post or something!

It’s been officially 5 weeks as of tomorrow and I swear every day I keep liking my results more and more, especially when I wear makeup and there is an easier way to identify my newly contoured cheeks. I can definitely see that things are still changing, and as I am continuing to lose weight (on purpose), I think it’s definitely helping. They are small gradual changes though which is great—although I am greatly testing my patience—but my want for a subtle but impactful change is paying off. It is weird though because I definitely think my face shape has changed to be a bit more square-like. I love that my cheekbones are more prominent, but I do think that there is this “jowl-like” part to my face now that makes it looks more square and less heart-shaped, and TBH ages me a bit. I’ll be mentioning it to Dr. Ort to see what we could do to remedy that look. I don’t think she could have done anything to avoid it or prevent it, I think I just have loose skin from weight gain in the past, or possible non-buccle fat that will shrink as I continue to lose weight. I think it’s probably been there the whole time but now that the buccle fat has been removed it’s just stands out more on its own. Either way, I’m not sure, but it does bug me a bit and I’d like to have a more gradual look from my chin to my cheekbone back. We’ll see. I still notice quite a voluminous look to my face when I do a full-teeth smile, but I’m sure it decreased from what it was before. Honestly, not sure what I was expecting, but I do feel like my cheeks aren’t “eating” my eyes anymore when I do smile, so that’s a win!
Other things to mention: I’m down to only occasionally wearing my face wrap—I try to wear it overnight but I was only recommended to wear it for four weeks, which was difficult and I won’t pretend that I did so perfectly. Also, my mouth stitches FINALLY dropped out over the weekend. Meaning, it took a full 4 weeks for them to fall out (they didn’t dissolve). The first one came out like last Wednesday and the last one came out on Saturday. Now it really feels like I’m on the mend! I’m posting just a couple more updated photos and photos of the buccle fat that was removed that I forgot to post last time. I have my 1-month follow-up on the 14th next week which I am assuming will be for after photos, and just a general check-up. When I see Dr. Ort I will bring up my new little “jowls” and see what she says.
So far, I’ve had a great experience. Dr. Ort and her staff has been nothing short of wonderful! I haven’t really left the house much (COVID and WFH) so I think the biggest test is how much I will like photos taken of me when I can see friends and travel again. I will update my review from “unsure” to one of the other two options around the 3-month mark so I can really give my body some time to heal and the results to settle in. So far, so good!

Well, hello! I’ve been holding off on posting my progress and feelings about everything because it has been quite the whirlwind of emotions these last couple weeks. Strap in though, as I’m going to do my best explaining the whole process of day-of surgery and how things have been going post-op!
Day of surgery: on the day of surgery I got in about 10min to 2pm, which was my scheduled time. I managed to get my partner to drop me off so that I could take a pain management medication that makes you all loopy and unable to drive after surgery. He drove down the road and took our dog to a local park while I went through the procedure. I think it ended up being about 3 hours total. So, when I got in, I was asked to change out of my clothes into a gown, and make sure all my earrings were taken out. Everything but my undies came off. However, if I had known prior that I could wear a sports bra, I probably would have, as the requirement was that it just couldn’t have an underwire. Didn’t bother me though. Then Dr. Ort gave me my meds (which I had filled prior to the surgery date and brought with me). Then I waited about an hour in her office for everything to kick in while she finished prepping the surgery room. Even after an hour I didn’t really notice feeling any different. She took me back anyway and we started. She had an assistant lady that accompanied her and that set up some music so I could be a little entertained while everything was going on. I believe she started with the Botox injections (which she marked up on my cheeks when I was originally in her office). Those were uncomfortable. Just like a burning sensation in my jaw, but that I think was the worst of it. Even when she put the actual numbing stuff/local anesthetic, it wasn’t bad. Otherwise it just felt weird. I believe we did the lipo on my chin/jaw first, then finished with the buccle fat removal. I could feel the cannula move under the skin, and at times it felt weird but otherwise could barely feel it. The buccle fat was awkward and was around the time I starting feeling a little out of it. There was a tugging feeling, with a little bit of pain, and then cauterization, and stitching. By the time it was all said and done I felt TIRED. Like physically tired and out of it. It was not painful, but I felt worn out. I got a glimpse of the buccle fat that was removed (took a photo to post here) and the fat that was extracted from my chin/jaw. When I left I had a face wrap, wrapped around my cheeks and neck, and had a little bit of leakage coming out of my chin. I also had two incisions behind each of my ears, but no leaking from them. All had stitches, my mouth stitches being dissolvable. I was also pretty swollen right away. I left around 5pm and was super drowsy in the car, and when I got home about 5:45, I remember trying to watch a movie but feeling very tired and weak. Dr. Ort did give me a call shortly after I got home to check on me (which was so nice!), she told me to ice my swelling diligently for the next two-three days. I’ll admit, I didn’t do that, I hate icing my skin. I ended up going to bed shortly after I got home.
Post-op:
The next few days were a bit rough as my jaw (where I had the Botox) was SUPER sore. The stitches inside my mouth were very tender and for the first day I pretty much just made like protein smoothies since that’s all I could really handle. By the second day I was eating normal food (which I wouldn’t necessarily recommend) but I was chewing very very slowly and doing my best not to let the food touch where the incision was. I rinsed my mouth thoroughly when I finished eating. As I mentioned above, I’ve gone through a whole range of emotions. The first week is rough because you face doesn’t look like your face, and it certainly doesn’t look like what you expected it to look like (healed!). My neck and jawline was also really sore and bruised, and I could barely move my cheeks when trying to talk. I had leaking out of my chin incision for about two days, but after that it stopped. I rubbed an ointment on all external incisions for a few days off and on about twice a day to help with the healing. I believe on the third day, one of my stitches behind my ear just naturally fell out, which was so fast! Last week was my 1-week follow-up appointment and Dr. Ort removed the other two (chin, and behind the other ear).
By the time I went in for my first post op appt. I was still pretty swollen and really skeptical of what I had just paid to put myself through. Dr. Ort checked all my incisions and told me I was healing up nicely, and that it will take 2-3 months for everything to settle in place and heal to its entirety. Which was both a relief and also a bummer. She massaged the incisions in my cheeks and offered to remove the stitches, but I told her she could keep those in, as my cheeks were still a bit sore, and since they should just dissolve anyway. She also told me I should massage my cheeks too on occasion, to help with the circulation, healing, and pain (at least that’s what I think she mentioned). My masseter muscle, where the Botox was injected, had finally started feeling better, and wasn’t nearly as sore as the first five days. It was so hard to talk and eat with it being that sore. I asked her if I should be doing anything else (like icing, because I hadn’t been doing it, and I felt a little guilt and wanted to find out if I still should be doing it) and she mentioned that at that point it would actually be better to put warm compressions on it instead to help with the circulation.
Anyway, I just finished up week two today and I will say, once I got to like day 10 I started feeling MUCH better about everything. My face swelling has gone down significantly and I could finally start seeing some contouring in my face and my cheekbones in all their glory. I do feel like I still have some swelling as I have a bit of a “jowl” look now, rather than a nice smooth transition from my chin to my cheekbones, but I am trying not to get worked up on that, and instead I’m just trying to trust the process and allow for time to do its thing. I still can’t smile that wide right now, as it’s still too sore and healing. The biggest annoyance out of all of this is that I was recommended to wear the chin and face covering for 4 weeks!! Which has been really tough, but I’m hoping it will make a difference. I take it off for a couple hours a day and anytime I eat my meals, but otherwise have it on non-stop. When I do take it off, I feel like there is a rush of blood from my cheeks down to my chin, so I know there is swelling still happening. I did leave surgery with the face wrap as it’s given as part of the post procedure process, but after 5 days I realized either I had stretched it out, or it was just too big and not compressing my face tight enough to have any significant impact on my swelling. I told this to Dr. Ort in my appt. and she told me she would give me a smaller size at no additional cost. I just picked that up today (she was out of them when I had my appt) and it’s so much more snug and feeling like it could help decrease the swelling further. Anyway, two weeks down, two more to go with it!
At two weeks post-op, my bruising under my chin seems to be pretty much gone, I can eat solid foods no problem, I have pretty minimal swelling left, but my stitches still haven’t dissolved in my mouth yet, so that’s been a little annoying. My right cheek is a tad sore still and my left is pretty much feeling pretty healed. I’m manually messaging both though and I can feel a slight bump where things are healing (NBD from what I was told, plus it should get softer over time). All three of my cannula incisions are healed, but they also have a small, unnoticeable bump too. I’ve been rubbing those and just hoping they will also get softer over time. They don’t bother me though, and I don’t think anyone will ever notice. One thing I also had a hard time with at first was my jawline. I was really hoping that the lipo would not only remove the unwanted fat, but it would also help retract my skin back so that it wasn’t as droopy (I didn’t have saggy skin, but I definitely didn’t have as defined of a jawline as I had hoped for). The first week was awful. Because I was swollen, I thought by doing this whole thing I made it worse! But thankfully, as time has gone on, it’s been getting better and has retracted back to become more defined. It’s still swollen, but it’s been a huge progress and I’m happy with it so far! Just gotta keep wearing that damn face wrap!
I’m going to give it a full 3 months before I give my final verdict on the overall procedure, but so far so good. Dr. Ort is very warm and I have no regrets with choosing her for these procedures! I’m attaching some progress photos, but intend to provide more as time goes on. As a side note, I have been actively trying to lose weight, and so I’m sure that over time that will help with the appearance of my face.
I have another post-op in three weeks (my one-month post-op) which I think I’ll be taking “after photos” of at that point. I did decide to partake in her social media discount special so I’m sure she will put my before and afters on her insta and website as part of the deal. To understand how taking that helped, I went from being quoted approx: $6100 to $5112, and I paid cash. If I didn’t pay cash I would have paid 5% more on both of those prices.
Anyway, I’ll update in a few weeks with any progress! Feel free to reach out to me with questions!