After <side view of scalp hair loss at 1 month> After <scalp hair loss near the crown at 1 month> After <scalp hair loss at 5 months (large bald patch)> After <scalp hair loss at 5 months (hair loss along the incision line)> After <uneven suturing> After <uneven suturing like the red box> Before <side view before surgery> After <side view after surgery (cheek sagging)> Hello. I had zygoma reduction surgery with a scalp-incision method because I was told it would not cause cheek sagging. It is not a method where they make a small incision around the temporal side of the head; it is a method where they cut all the way from one ear to the other. And as far as I know, only a few hospitals perform surgery this extensively. Because of that, there are not many reviews about this kind of surgery, and the reason I am leaving this review is to share my surgical experience so it can help others make a decision. I have already written a review up to one month, so I would appreciate it if you checked it through the link. [community link]
From one month to two months, the swelling slowly starts to go down. In my case, by the second month, I think most of the swelling had gone down. For this reason, people commonly say that with plastic surgery, especially facial contouring surgery, you need to watch the progress for up to one year, but I think once you pass the second month, you can tell the general contour and whether the surgery went well. Until one month after surgery, because of the swelling, my cheekbones actually felt bigger. By two months, the swelling had gone down and my original previous appearance started to show again. There has not been much change after that. What I mean is, I cannot really tell the effect of the zygoma reduction surgery.. Of course, if I compare closely, it may have reduced a little. My concern was that my lateral cheekbones were very developed, but they are still just as wide sideways, and even friends and family cannot tell at all from just looking at my face that I had cheekbone surgery.
When deciding on surgery, you need to weigh the gains and losses. In my case, there were too many losses I had not expected, and the gain was extremely minimal. From here, I will tell you the losses I think I experienced.
<Hair loss> Until one month after surgery, hair falls out in handfuls. It falls out in a strip as wide as a finger. I attached photos from after one month and after five months, so please check them.
Up to the first month, I thought it was temporary hair loss, so I was not too worried. But from around months 3-4, the hair that was supposed to grow back did not come in, so I became anxious. So around the third month, I went to a hair-transplant specialty clinic for a consultation, and they said more hair could still come in up to six months, but once it passes six months, there is almost no chance of more hair growing back. At that time, I received an estimate for 1,300 grafts, but even after six months the hair did not come back, so when I got another estimate, it came out to 2,200 grafts. The hair that I expected would come back did not, so the estimate actually increased. They say hair transplantation for scars is done for the purpose of covering the scar, so the goal is to fill it to 50-80% of normal density. My actual hair loss is much more than 2,200 grafts.
Regarding the hair loss, I could understand if this had happened because I managed it incorrectly despite the hospital's instructions, but I was not told any separate care method. However, if anyone has surgery through a scalp incision, I think you may lose less hair than I did if you treat the incision area carefully for two weeks, thinking of it as the engraftment period for the hair around the incision. (This is something I learned later while looking into hair transplants.)
Anyway, I suffered for six months thinking, what if my hair does not grow back? In the end, permanent large and small bald patches formed along the incision line. The hospital easily says that after one year, they can just stitch it up, but as the person actually going through it, I feel skeptical.
The reasons are as follows. 1. When stitching it up, they excise it in an oval shape and stitch it, but the surrounding normal hair is inevitably removed together. I already had hair loss of more than 2,200 grafts, so how much more hair loss am I supposed to endure? 2. Even in strip-method hair transplantation, where they excise the occipital area at a width of 1-1.5 cm, widened scars often occur. Therefore, even if they cut out and stitch up a large bald patch over 2 cm wide, there is a high possibility it will widen again. 3. Incision-scar hair loss of 5 mm or less along the incision line cannot be cut out and stitched up.
Because of the reasons above, I do not think this is something you can lightly brush off by thinking permanent hair-loss areas can be easily removed with scar excision.
<Scars> I developed large scars at the incision sites. The right and left crown areas especially widened, leaving large bald patches. As I said earlier, I am skeptical about scar excision. Then can you just transplant hair into the scar area? That is not really the case either.. If you look at the scar area, it is hard, unlike normal skin. There are not many blood vessels either. So even if hair follicles are implanted into the scar area, they do not engraft well. Because the suture line is damaged deep into the skin, you can think of it as being covered with scar tissue. They say that if hair transplantation is performed on a surgical-incision scar, the engraftment rate is 10-20%. It is basically a surgery guaranteed to fail. This is what it means to leave a scar on the head.
Do you see the circled part in the attached photos? It would have been nice if it had been sutured neatly, but mine was stitched unevenly. (Please look at the drawing. It was not stitched like the blue box, but unevenly like the red box.) Since the incision line is extremely long, please consider that it may be difficult for every area to be neatly sutured, as in my case.
<Cheek sagging> Around the time two months had passed, a wrinkle appeared under my eye as if it had been cut with a knife. The right side is especially worse. The Indian band became deeper, and because the area next to my nose bulges out, my nasolabial fold became extremely severe, making me look older overall.
I attached photos from before and after surgery. How does it look to you? The hospital says it is absolutely not cheek sagging, but I would appreciate it if you honestly commented on whether it looks like cheek sagging or not. (I would rather it just be my imagination too.)
<Sensory abnormality> Even though it has been 7 months since surgery, the incision area on my scalp is itchy. It is hard to describe, but it does not feel itchy on the surface; it feels itchy inside the skin. It really drives me crazy.. hahaha They said they would pull the periosteum upward and suture it to prevent cheek sagging, and maybe because of that, I keep feeling a pulling sensation inside the cheekbone area. When I make a frowning expression, the pulling sensation becomes severe enough to hurt. But far from preventing cheek sagging, when I look in the mirror I look older and my face feels tight.. It has already been 7 months, but this is still continuing, so I am getting anxious..
As I keep writing, I have more and more I want to say, so the post has become longㅠ I hope my experience can be a reference for those considering a scalp incision, whether for cheekbone surgery or a facelift. Next time, I plan to write a review about the consultation I had when I went to the hospital in April. Thank you for reading this long post, and please leave comments if you have questions or evaluations about the cheek sagging.
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