Temporal Facelift With Chin Liposuction Before After

Patient Overview

• Patient: Fatema

• Age: 43 years old

• Gender: Female

• Procedures: Temporal facelift, browlift, buccal fat removal, chin liposuction

• After photos taken at: 1 month post-surgery

• Location: Istanbul, Turkey

How Chin Liposuction Completes the Results of a Temporal Facelift

Facial ageing rarely presents as a single problem in a single zone. By the early forties, most patients notice changes happening simultaneously across multiple areas: the brow descends, the cheeks lose definition, the jawline softens, and stubborn fat beneath the chin begins to blur the angle between the jaw and neck. Addressing only one of these concerns while leaving the others untouched produces a partial result that can actually draw more attention to the areas left untreated. For Fatema, a 43-year-old woman who travelled to Istanbul for her procedure, the goal was comprehensive. She wanted a defined jawline, restored cheekbone contour, and a refreshed upper face, all achieved in one surgical session. Dr. Cem Berkay Sinaci, a Fellow of the European Board of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (FEBOPRAS) and active member of ISAPS and ASPS, designed a four-component treatment plan combining temporal facelift, browlift, buccal fat removal, and chin liposuction to address every layer of her concern.

What a Temporal Facelift Targets That Other Facelifts Do Not

The term facelift covers a broad spectrum of procedures, and not every facelift addresses the same anatomical region. A temporal facelift specifically targets the upper and lateral face, the zone extending from the temples down across the outer cheek. This is the area where early gravitational descent is most visible, particularly in patients in their late thirties and forties who are not yet candidates for a full face and neck lift but have progressed beyond what injectable treatments can meaningfully correct.

Through incisions hidden within the hairline at the temples, Dr. Sinaci accessed the deeper tissue layers and repositioned the descended soft tissue upward and slightly backward, restoring the natural tension that had been lost to gravity and time. The temporal facelift is particularly effective for lifting the outer brow, elevating the lateral cheek, and softening early jowling along the jawline. For Fatema, this approach provided the structural foundation of her transformation, addressing the gravitational descent that was affecting the entire lateral contour of her face.

Adding a Browlift for Upper Face Harmony

The brow and the temporal region are anatomically continuous. When the temporal tissues descend, they pull the lateral brow down with them, creating a heavy, tired appearance around the outer eyes. During Fatema's temporal facelift, Dr. Sinaci incorporated a browlift to reposition the brow to its youthful height. This is not a separate incision or a separate recovery. The browlift component is performed through the same temporal access point, making it an efficient addition that dramatically improves the result.

Restoring the brow position opened up Fatema's eye area, reducing the lateral hooding that brow descent creates and giving her eyes a more alert, rested expression. The combined temporal facelift and browlift work as a unit because they share the same anatomical plane. Attempting to lift the temporal face without addressing the fallen brow would have left the upper face looking inconsistent with the rejuvenated mid and lower zones.

Buccal Fat Removal to Define the Cheekbone-to-Jaw Transition

Once the temporal facelift repositioned the descended tissues and the browlift restored upper face balance, the next step was refining the lower facial contour. Fatema had prominent buccal fat pads, the encapsulated fatty deposits that sit deep within the cheeks below the cheekbones. These pads are a normal anatomical structure, but when they are large, they fill out the lower cheek and create a rounded facial shape that obscures the natural transition from cheekbone to jawline.

Buccal fat removal is performed through small incisions inside the mouth, leaving absolutely no external scars. The fat pads are carefully dissected free and partially removed to create a more sculpted contour. The word partially is important here. Dr. Sinaci takes a conservative approach to buccal fat removal because the face continues to lose volume naturally with age. Removing too much at 43 can lead to a hollow, aged appearance by the mid-fifties. The goal is enhancement of existing bone structure, not the creation of an artificially chiselled look. For Fatema, the buccal fat reduction worked together with the upward repositioning from the temporal facelift to reveal a defined cheekbone contour and a tapered lower face.

Why Chin Liposuction Is the Missing Piece in Facial Contouring

Of all the components in Fatema's procedure, chin liposuction may be the one that patients most commonly overlook during their initial research. The submental area, the pocket of fat beneath the chin, is remarkably resistant to diet and exercise. Even patients at a healthy weight can carry a fullness here that softens the cervicomental angle, the angle between the chin and neck that defines a clean jawline when it is sharp and blurs facial definition when it is obtuse.

Chin liposuction uses a small cannula inserted through a tiny incision beneath the chin, typically only three to four millimetres in length. The fat is gently suctioned out, sculpting the area to reveal the natural jawline and sharpening the chin-to-neck transition. For Fatema, this was the final element that tied the entire result together. The temporal facelift lifted the lateral face, the browlift opened the eyes, the buccal fat removal defined the cheeks, and the chin liposuction cleaned the lower border, creating a continuous line of definition from temple to chin.

One-Month Recovery Milestone After Combined Facial Surgery

Fatema's before and after photographs were taken one month after surgery. At this stage, the visible bruising has fully resolved, and the majority of superficial swelling has subsided. Deeper tissue swelling, particularly in the cheeks where buccal fat was removed and along the jawline where liposuction was performed, may take an additional two to three months to fully settle. This means the contour Fatema shows at one month will continue to refine and sharpen over the coming weeks.

At one month, most patients have returned to their normal daily routines and feel comfortable in social settings. The incision lines within the hairline are well healed and concealed by hair growth. The intraoral incisions from the buccal fat removal have healed completely, as the oral mucosa is one of the fastest healing tissues in the body. The small puncture site beneath the chin from liposuction is typically invisible by this point.

The Value of a Single-Session Multi-Procedure Approach

Fatema's case illustrates a principle that Dr. Sinaci applies frequently in his practice: when multiple areas of the face contribute to an overall imbalance, addressing them in a single session produces a more harmonious result than staging procedures months apart. A single operation means one anaesthesia event, one recovery period, and the ability to balance every zone against the others in real time on the operating table. It also means the patient sees a complete transformation rather than a series of incremental changes that may feel disconnected.

This multi-procedure approach requires a surgeon who can visualise the face as an interconnected three-dimensional structure and anticipate how changes in one area will affect the appearance of another. Dr. Sinaci's advanced training in facial anatomy, including fellowship training in Brazil with world-renowned plastic surgeon Raul Gonzalez and cadaver dissection courses in Bangkok, provides exactly this depth of understanding. For international patients like Fatema who travel to Istanbul for their surgery, the single-session approach also carries a practical advantage: one trip, one recovery, and a complete result.