Is Buccal Fat Removal A Good Idea?

I didn’t know what a buccal fat pad was until recently, yet Buccal Fat removal surgery seems to have taken social media platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram by storm!

- REBECCA BISSET

Basically, it’s the removal of the cheek pad (the word buccal comes from the Latin “bucca” meaning cheek) – and young men and women, in particular, are increasingly turning to it as a shortcut to remove face fat or achieve a more sculpted or chiselled face.

Although buccal fat removal surgery isn’t new, interest in it has significantly increased among the younger population. This is largely from the influence of the “snatched” look of social influencers and celebrities they follow. Chrissy Teigen, a Hollywood actress and model, is just one who has publicly shared that she’s had the surgery.

Buccal fat removal surgery is designed to “thin” the cheeks for those who don’t like their cheeks being “fat” – which is weird, seeing as the rest of the older population is trying to plump theirs up! (And this is also one of the issues with this surgery, as we’ll find out later.)

We asked Dr Ivan Puah, an aesthetics and liposuction doctor at Amaris B. Clinic in Singapore – and someone with over 17 years of facial and body sculpting experience – for a more medical view of the trend.

The importance of the buccal fat pad

Dr Puah describes the buccal fat pad as a unique and essential piece of facial structure. “It fills the deep tissue spaces and acts as a gliding pad when the masticatory and mimetic muscles (for chewing and showing expression, respectively) contract.”

It also profoundly impacts the look and shape of the face. The buccal fat pad develops significantly between the ages of 10 and 20 before gradually shrinking in size over the following 30 years.

Ideal and unsuitable candidates for the surgery