Dr. Benjamin Caughlin's Cheekago Face Sculpting Treatment
What is “Cheekago”?
Why is this unique and why is it so effective?
Nobody is doing this currently, and it is the appreciation of volume redistribution that is paramount. I am the only one in the world doing it this way currently. I did publish this recently though in an international journal, so soon there will be others. That’s actually a great thing. We will learn even more when more talented facial plastic surgeons start to do it this way. The key here is that with different patients a different approach is required and I adjust the procedure slightly for each patient.
For example, for people that want a more sculpted look but may have a tendency for loose skin I will tighten more the internal mucosa to give an inside out facelift. For people that have thicker skin and round lower cheeks I sculpt more fat and tighten the buccinator muscle over a longer strip. When I combine the inside out cheek sculpting with jawline and neck micro-liposuction the results are profound. It is proven. See below with my published experience on volume changes in the face. The cheek sculpting, which includes buccal fat pad sculpting, mucosal removal and muscle tightening, allows for a concavity just below the zygoma and cheek bone to create contour and definition. It is that simple. If a concavity is created in the lower 1/3rd of the face at the same time as lifting the skin from a subcutaneous approach of the neck and jawline it allows a lifting of the neck and jowl. This is a profound antigravity maneuver. It’s ok, my wife is an astrophysicist. That is a true statement BTW. This is an aesthetic many are after. I personally love it. Some don’t though, so that must be discussed. Be clear with your goals and find a surgeon you trust that specializes in what you want.
Why am I the best at face sculpting and buccal fat sculpting?
I am the only surgeon in the world that tightens the mucosa by focal removal and tightens the muscle by stripping and electrocautery induced shrinkage along with buccal fat pad sculpting. I call it sculpting for a reason. It is not just a buccal fat pad removal. Let me repeat that, it is not JUST another buccal fat pad removal. Don’t over simplify it. This is a powerful maneuver in the right hands and in the right patient. It is also a procedure with significant risks in the wrong hands. Google buccal space and anatomy in that area. The risks are huge and those that over simply this procedure are destain to make a mistake.
I am great at buccal fat pad removal, cheek sculpting, jawline contouring, neck liposuction and the entire lower face. I am good at other parts of the face but I am great with the jawline and lower 1/3rd. It is my focus. If this area concerns you I have no doubt that I am the person that has the most experience, skill and knowledge of this specific area. I will wait for someone to contest me. There are no doubts.
“When you are good at what you like and like what you are good at, then you get better at what you like! That’s when things start to flow!” -DrC
It is interesting, the more of a particular procedure I do, the more complicated it becomes. That is counter intuitive because one would think it would get easier. I have always been a creator, explorer, innovator and developer. Every case I do I think about how I could have done it better. Every case. It’s one of those qualities that keeps me up at night. This is not good for my sleeping habits but is great for my patients. I am always thinking about where the opportunities are for innovation and perfection. It’s a stressful quality to have but it is what pushes me to the next level. My modified buccal fat pad sculpting is a great example of this. I did 100’s of these cases before I started to modify it. I was always telling patients well, “I can only take the fat. The lower one third of the face has muscles, arteries, nerves, the parotid duct, fat and mucosa”. Then I started thinking, “hmmm we take this mucosa and muscle all the time for grafts in reconstructive cases. I should take some mucosa and fat”. I also began to notice more and more the prominent line of parakeratosis in patients that bite the inside of their cheeks. Seemed like an opportunity! Little by little I took more and more mucosa and then a bit of muscle and then I electro-shrunk some muscle. All of this until Cheekago was born! Made in Chicago!
I appreciate and have studied volume redistribution now for 10 years. With multiple publications on 3D volume assessment in many different international journals. See the list below of select relevant publications.
Cristel RT, Caughlin BP Buccal Fat Pad Sculpting for Lower Facial Contouring. Facial Plast Surg
Aesthet Med. 2020. doi 10.1089/fpsam.2020.0378.
Cristel RT, Caughlin BP Buccal Fat Pad Sculpting for Lower Facial Contouring With 3-Dimensional
Volume Assessment. American Journal of Cosmetic Surgery. 2020. Doi 10.1177/0748806820980862.
Cristel RT, Caughlin BP Lower Blepharoplasty 3-Dimensional Volume Assessment After Fat Pad Trans-position and Concomitant Fat Grating. Facial Plastic Surgery. (Accepted for publication December 2019)
Bared, T., Rashan, A., Caughlin, BP., Toriumi DM. Lower Lateral Cartilage Repositioning: Objective Analysis Using 3-Dimensional Imaging. JAMA Facial Plast Surg. Published online April 10, 2014. doi:10.1001/jamafacial.2013.2552
“A sharp cervico-mental angle is sexy, I don’t care who you are. There is no doubt that it is attractive. Hot is Hot.” -Dr. C
Volume redistribution, being a passion of mine, has allowed me to really appreciate the power of harnessing peaks and valleys to create shadows and curves. If I was a general plastic surgeon I would have likely been a Brazilian Butt Lift guy. Being a facial plastic surgeon they call me the “facial corset, the face maker”. I have worked with some great plastic surgeons and dermatologists who have the BBL down. I learned a lot from them from a contouring standpoint. I have extrapolated this to the face, jawline and neck. I have learned and perfected making the sculpted and contoured look of the lower face and jawline. That includes the neck.
I started out the facial sculpting journey with buccal fat, I added tightening the mucosa, then tightening the muscle. Then micro-focused liposuction and sculpting to allow the skin and soft tissues to saddle the body of the mandible. When we allow the buccal fat space to create a concavity at the same time we let the skin and soft tissue superficial to the platysma muscle re-drape over the neck and boney structures, that’s when we create contour. We snatch. We get people snatched. That is what we do at Many Faces of Chicago we snatch people .
One thing I did when I started to develop Cheekago was I constructed what I thought was the perfect jawline. What created the curves and shadows people were after. Some things that come into play are skin thickness, muscle tone and thickness, bone structure, fat content of both subdermal fat and deep fat pads such as buccal fat along with the relative distances from facial subunits. A long face can get away with a lot more fat and thicker skin when compared to a shorter more round face. All of these tissue layers need to be taken into account when trying to sculpt a face. Sometimes a chin implant is the choice, sometimes filler or threads, some time fat repositioning or reduction. If these are not appreciated from an anatomical perspective you will fail. You will fail. Nobody wants a failure in facial plastic and cosmetic surgery. Definitely not Many Faces of Chicago! Amen.
