Biggest Buccal Fat Pads I’ve Ever Seen | 70 Year Old Man | Myth Busted

I have always believed that buccal fat pad removal does not make faces gaunt or hollow. The reason I feel this way is that the buccal fat pad is a deep and discrete mass. Subcutaneous fat and skin, however, confer a certain softness and youthfulness that should not be confused with buccal fat pad hypertrophy and pseudo-herniation. I present the case of a 70-year-old man who is bothered by bulges over his buccal space. Clinically, these resembled excessive and herniating buccal fat pads. The patient wished to have these out and was not concerned about looking older or gaunt. The operation was really no different than in a much younger patient, and the results were equally subtle, but important. The take-home message is that the bothersome contour abnormalities were no longer. More importantly, my patient did not appear older as a result of buccal fat pad removal. More recently, a similar volume was resected from a 60-year-old Hispanic man with a full face. In my experience, buccal fat pads do not appear to get smaller with age. The quality and quantity of the tissue is similar, regardless of age, BMI, gender, and ethnicity.