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Procedure guide · Face
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Dimple Surgery (Dimpleplasty)Dimple surgery, or dimpleplasty, creates a dimple by making a small incision inside the cheek and placing a stitch that tethers the inner lining of the cheek to the muscle beneath the skin, so a dimple appears when you smile. It takes 20 to 30 minutes under local anaesthesia and leaves no external scar. A permanent dimple is visible at rest for the first weeks, then settles to appear only on smiling by 6 to 8 weeks.
From
€1,380$1,540£1,150
Typical range: €1,380$1,540£1,150€2,380$2,650£1,980
Turkey · 1 clinic
Also known as: Dimpleplasty, Cheek dimple creation, Chin dimple surgery, Dimple creation surgery
How prices compare
Typical all-inclusive package prices from verified clinics, set against what the same procedure costs at home.
1 clinic
€1,380$1,540£1,150€2,380$2,650£1,980
United Kingdom
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026.
€2,160$2,410£1,800€3,840$4,280£3,200
United States
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to United States by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€2,330$2,600£1,940€4,120$4,600£3,440
Germany
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Germany by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,850$2,070£1,540€3,300$3,680£2,750
France
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to France by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,900$2,120£1,580€3,350$3,740£2,790
Netherlands
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Netherlands by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,950$2,180£1,630€3,500$3,910£2,920
Italy
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Italy by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,650$1,840£1,380€2,950$3,290£2,460
Spain
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Spain by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,550$1,730£1,290€2,750$3,070£2,290
Ireland
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Ireland by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€2,300$2,570£1,920€4,100$4,580£3,420
Switzerland
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Switzerland by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€3,010$3,360£2,510€5,300$5,920£4,420
Austria
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Austria by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,900$2,120£1,580€3,400$3,800£2,840
Belgium
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Belgium by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€2,000$2,230£1,670€3,500$3,910£2,920
Sweden
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Sweden by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€2,050$2,290£1,710€3,650$4,080£3,040
Norway
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Norway by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€2,200$2,460£1,840€3,900$4,350£3,250
Denmark
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Denmark by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€2,400$2,680£2,000€4,250$4,750£3,550
Bulgaria
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Bulgaria by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,050$1,170£880€1,900$2,120£1,580
Croatia
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Croatia by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,350$1,510£1,130€2,350$2,620£1,960
Cyprus
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Cyprus by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,500$1,670£1,250€2,700$3,010£2,250
Czechia
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Czechia by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,500$1,670£1,250€2,700$3,010£2,250
Estonia
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Estonia by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,700$1,900£1,420€3,050$3,410£2,540
Finland
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Finland by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€2,050$2,290£1,710€3,650$4,080£3,040
Greece
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Greece by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,500$1,670£1,250€2,650$2,960£2,210
Hungary
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Hungary by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,300$1,450£1,080€2,350$2,620£1,960
Iceland
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Iceland by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€2,950$3,290£2,460€5,250$5,860£4,380
Latvia
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Latvia by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,400$1,560£1,170€2,500$2,790£2,090
Lithuania
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Lithuania by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,400$1,560£1,170€2,500$2,790£2,090
Luxembourg
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Luxembourg by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€2,250$2,510£1,880€4,000$4,470£3,340
Malta
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Malta by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,550$1,730£1,290€2,800$3,130£2,340
Poland
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Poland by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,250$1,400£1,040€2,200$2,460£1,840
Portugal
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Portugal by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,450$1,620£1,210€2,600$2,900£2,170
Romania
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Romania by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,100$1,230£920€1,950$2,180£1,630
Slovakia
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Slovakia by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,450$1,620£1,210€2,600$2,900£2,170
Slovenia
Estimated from minor local anaesthetic surgery in the Centre for Surgery published price list, 2026, scaled to Slovenia by Eurostat, price level indices (tec00120), household final consumption, 2025, converted at rates of 2026-09-23.
€1,500$1,670£1,250€2,700$3,010£2,250
About 37% less than United Kingdom
About 42% less than United States
About 27% less than Germany
About 28% less than France
About 31% less than Netherlands
About 18% less than Italy
About 13% less than Spain
About 41% less than Ireland
About 55% less than Switzerland
About 29% less than Austria
About 32% less than Belgium
About 34% less than Sweden
About 38% less than Norway
About 43% less than Denmark
About 10% less than Cyprus
About 10% less than Czechia
About 21% less than Estonia
About 34% less than Finland
About 9% less than Greece
About 54% less than Iceland
About 4% less than Latvia
About 4% less than Lithuania
About 40% less than Luxembourg
About 14% less than Malta
About 7% less than Portugal
About 7% less than Slovakia
About 10% less than Slovenia
Turkey: €1,380$1,540£1,150 – €2,380$2,650£1,980
Prices are indicative ranges collected from clinics and verified periodically. Your final price follows a personal consultation.
From
€1,380$1,540£1,150
Dimple surgery in Turkey creates a dimple in the cheek by removing a small core of tissue from inside the mouth and stitching the skin down to the muscle, so a permanent dent forms where the suture tethers it, in a twenty to forty minute procedure under local anaesthesia as a day case, at a fraction of the price in Western Europe or North America. There is no external scar. The honest difficulty is that a surgical dimple is present all the time rather than only when you smile, it is difficult to reverse, and it is the cosmetic procedure this site would most often advise waiting on.
A natural dimple is a small anatomical accident. In most faces the muscle that draws the corner of the mouth outward runs beneath the cheek without attaching to the overlying skin. In perhaps a fifth of people, a band of that muscle is attached directly to the underside of the skin, so when the muscle contracts during a smile, it pulls the skin inward and a dimple appears. It is a structural feature rather than a fold, which is why dimples appear in movement and vanish at rest.
Dimple surgery, or dimpleplasty, reproduces that anatomy deliberately. Through a small incision inside the cheek, the surgeon removes a core of tissue to create a space between the lining of the cheek and the skin, then passes a suture that ties the two together. As healing progresses, a small area of scar forms where the layers are held in contact, and that scar maintains the tether permanently. The procedure takes 20 to 30 minutes under local anaesthesia and leaves nothing visible on the outside of the face.
The most important thing to understand before having it done is the sequence of how it looks, because it is counterintuitive and it is where most distress comes from. Immediately after dimple surgery, and for the first 4 to 8 weeks, the dimple is present even when your face is completely at rest. It is deeper and more constant than a natural dimple ever is. Patients frequently contact the clinic in the second or third week convinced something has gone wrong. It has not: as the tissues settle and the tethering relaxes to its final tension, the dimple recedes at rest and comes to appear mainly on smiling, which is the intended result.
Surgeons differ over whether to use a permanent or an absorbable suture, and the choice is a real trade-off rather than a technicality. A permanent suture holds the tether indefinitely and is more reliable, at the cost of leaving a stitch in the cheek that can occasionally be felt or become irritated. An absorbable suture dissolves and relies on the scar that has formed to maintain the dimple, which leaves nothing behind but carries a higher chance of the dimple fading over the following months. It is worth asking which the surgeon uses and why.
Position is where good and bad results are separated, and it is decided before anything is cut. The dimple is marked with the patient sitting upright and smiling, usually on a line running from the corner of the mouth towards the ear, roughly where a natural dimple would fall on that particular face. Depth settles over time, but position does not, and a dimple placed too high, too low or too far forward looks artificial in a way that no amount of settling corrects. Spending real time on the marking, and looking at it in a mirror while you smile before agreeing, is the most useful thing a patient can do.
Symmetry is approximate rather than exact, and that is worth accepting in advance. The two sides of a face differ in muscle bulk and soft tissue thickness, so two dimples rarely settle to identical depth or behave identically in movement. Natural dimples are frequently asymmetric too, and a significant number of people have only one, so a modest difference reads as normal. A difference in position is the version that looks wrong, which again comes back to the marking.
The risks are medically minor. Swelling inside the cheek for a few days, a sore spot like a mouth ulcer, and a small chance of infection that usually settles with antibiotics. Two structures nearby deserve respect and are the reason position is marked carefully: the parotid duct, which drains saliva into the cheek, and branches of the facial nerve. Injury to either is very rare but is the reason this is a procedure for a surgeon who does it regularly rather than a walk-in treatment.
The real risk is of a different kind, and it is the reason to think harder about this procedure than its size suggests. A created dimple is permanent, and reversal cannot be promised. The tether can be divided and a small graft placed between the layers to stop them re-adhering, which works in many cases and works best before the scar has fully matured, but the scar itself may hold the dimple regardless. Dimple surgery is cheap, quick and almost painless, all of which makes it feel like a low-stakes decision, and it is not.
The patients who are happy afterwards tend to share a pattern: they wanted a dimple for a long time rather than recently, they thought carefully about where it should sit, and they accepted the awkward first 6 weeks knowingly. Those who regret it usually decided quickly. A surgeon who asks how long you have wanted this, and who is willing to suggest waiting rather than booking, is behaving responsibly rather than obstructively.
Surgeons look for these points at the consultation.
Dimple surgery suits adults who want a dimple where they have none, who have enough cheek soft tissue for a dimple to form convincingly, who have healthy teeth and gums, and who understand that a created dimple is permanent, will be visible at rest for several weeks, and is not reliably reversible.
Reasons a good surgeon will ask you to wait or choose something else.
Dimple surgery is avoided in active dental or gum infection, in very thin cheeks where the tether would show as a permanent depression, in patients under 18, in smokers who will not stop, and in anyone who is uncertain, because reversal cannot be guaranteed.
Ask your surgeon which technique they recommend for you and why.
A small incision is made inside the cheek, a core of tissue is removed, and an absorbable or permanent suture ties the inner lining to the underside of the skin so it dimples on smiling. The standard dimple surgery technique.
A permanent suture holds the tether indefinitely; an absorbable one dissolves and relies on the scar that forms to maintain the dimple. Surgeons differ in which they prefer.
A cleft in the chin is created by working on the soft tissue and, in some techniques, the underlying bone, through an incision inside the lower lip. A different operation from a cheek dimple despite the shared name.
An unwanted dimple is released by dividing the tether and, where necessary, placing a small graft between the layers to stop them re-adhering.
Step by step, from arrival to discharge.
Before dimple surgery the position is marked with you sitting upright and smiling, and shown to you in a mirror. Position is the one thing that does not change with settling, so this step decides the result.
Local anaesthetic is infiltrated inside the cheek. No sedation or general anaesthesia is needed for a cheek dimpleplasty.
A small incision is made inside the cheek at the marked point, avoiding the parotid duct and the branches of the facial nerve that run nearby.
A small core of tissue is removed between the cheek lining and the skin, so the two layers can be brought into contact and will adhere as they heal.
A suture ties the inner lining of the cheek to the underside of the skin at the marked point, creating the dimple. The surgeon checks the effect by asking you to smile.
The intraoral incision is closed with dissolving sutures. There is nothing to remove later and no external wound to care for.
Frequencies follow published guidance; your personal risk depends on your health and the surgeon.
Dimple surgery is technically simple and medically low-risk: a 20 minute procedure under local anaesthesia, done entirely through the inside of the cheek, with no external scar. Infection is uncommon and serious complications are rare.
The risk that matters is different in kind. A created dimple is permanent and reversal is not guaranteed, because the scar that holds the dimple may persist even after the suture is divided. That asymmetry, easy to create and difficult to undo, is the reason to be more certain about this procedure than about most cosmetic treatments of comparable size, and the reason reputable surgeons will decline to operate on a patient who seems unsure.
For the first 4 to 8 weeks after dimple surgery the dimple shows even when the face is still. This is expected and settles, but it is the phase patients find most difficult.
Mild swelling and a sore spot inside the mouth for a few days, managed with soft food and antiseptic mouth rinses.
Two dimples rarely settle identically in depth or position, which is noticeable because the face is watched while smiling. Natural dimples are frequently asymmetric too.
The tether releases and the dimple fades, more often with absorbable sutures. Repeating the procedure is straightforward.
A dimple placed too deep or in the wrong position remains obvious at rest, and because reversal is uncertain, this is the outcome patients regret most.
Uncommon after dimple surgery and usually settled with antibiotics, though a permanent suture that becomes infected generally has to be removed.
The duct that drains saliva into the cheek and branches of the facial nerve run near the dimple site, which is why position is marked carefully and why an experienced surgeon matters.
The physical recovery from dimple surgery is trivial: a sore spot inside the cheek, soft food for a few days, mouth rinses, and back at work within 2 days. Hardly anyone needs more than simple painkillers.
The psychological recovery is the part that catches people out. For the first 4 to 8 weeks the dimple is visible even when your face is completely still, which is deeper and more obvious than the natural dimple you asked for, and patients frequently contact the clinic in the second week convinced it has gone wrong. It has not; it settles. But it is worth knowing beforehand, and worth not booking anything you will be photographed at during that window.
Days 1-3
The inside of the cheek is tender and the dimple is deep and visible even at rest. Soft food, antiseptic mouth rinses after everything you eat, and simple painkillers.
Days 4-7
Tenderness resolves and normal eating returns. The dimple remains obvious at rest. Most people are back at work on day 2 and flying is cleared at day 2.
Weeks 2-4
The dimple becomes less pronounced at rest as the tissues settle, though it is still visible when the face is still. Intraoral sutures dissolve.
Weeks 6-8
The dimple recedes at rest and appears mainly on smiling, which is the intended result of dimple surgery. This is the point at which it starts to look natural.
Month 3
The depth and position are settled. A dimple that is still deep at rest at this stage is unlikely to change further, and any discussion of revision starts here.
A successful dimple looks like something you were born with: absent when your face is still, appearing as a soft depression when you smile, and moving naturally with the rest of the cheek. Because dimple surgery reproduces the actual anatomy of a natural dimple rather than imitating its appearance, a well-placed one is indistinguishable from the real thing.
Getting there takes longer than the procedure suggests. The dimple is deep and constant at rest for the first month, softens through weeks 4 to 6, and becomes a dynamic dimple that shows mainly on smiling by around 6 to 8 weeks. By 3 months the depth and behaviour are settled, and a dimple that is still obvious at rest at that point is unlikely to change further.
The result is permanent in most patients. Where a permanent suture has been used the tether does not release; where an absorbable one was used, the scar that formed usually maintains the dimple, though it fades in a proportion of cases and the procedure then has to be repeated. A repeat is straightforward and is done the same way.
Symmetry is close rather than exact, and this is normal rather than a shortcoming. Two dimples rarely settle to precisely the same depth, and natural dimples are frequently uneven or present on only one side, so a modest difference reads as ordinary. Position is the aspect that has to be right, and it is fixed at the marking stage rather than during healing.
Dimple surgery is one of the least expensive procedures in facial surgery. It takes 20 to 30 minutes, is performed under local anaesthesia in a clinic room, uses no implant or device, and needs no anaesthetist or conventional theatre. Most of what you pay for is the surgeon’s judgement about position.
That low price is precisely why it warrants more thought than its cost suggests. A permanent change to the face that is difficult to reverse should not be chosen because it is cheap, and a clinic that markets dimple surgery as a quick, casual treatment is misrepresenting what it is.
One item is worth settling in writing beforehand: what happens if the dimple fades. Loss of the tether is a recognised outcome, particularly with absorbable sutures, and whether the repeat procedure is included or charged again differs between clinics.
From
€1,380$1,540£1,150
Typical range: €1,380$1,540£1,150€2,380$2,650£1,980
Prices for dimple surgery (dimpleplasty) come from written quotes we hold on file, compared across 1 clinic in 1 destination. The full breakdown shows what each package covers and how it compares with having it done at home.
Why quotes for the same procedure differ, so you can compare packages fairly.
Options to weigh before deciding, surgical and non-surgical.
A genuine option and worth stating plainly. Dimple surgery is permanent and reversal is uncertain, so anyone who is unsure is better served by waiting than by proceeding because it is inexpensive.
A different operation with a similar name, creating a vertical cleft in the chin rather than a round cheek dimple, and sometimes combined with a chin implant or genioplasty.
Where the underlying wish is for more defined cheek hollows rather than a dimple specifically, reducing the buccal fat pad addresses that directly.
Where the real concern is flat or undefined cheeks, adding structure over the cheekbone changes the shape of the midface, which a dimple does not.
Ask the same questions at every consultation so you can compare answers.
A natural dimple exists because a small band of the cheek muscle is attached directly to the overlying skin, so when the muscle contracts during a smile it pulls the skin inward. Dimple surgery reproduces that anatomy deliberately. Through a small incision inside the cheek, a core of tissue is removed to create a space, and a suture is passed to tether the inner lining of the cheek to the underside of the skin.
As healing progresses, the tether and the scar that forms around it hold the two layers together permanently, so the skin is drawn inward whenever the muscle contracts. This is also why the dimple is deep at rest in the early weeks and becomes dynamic later: the tissues have to settle before the dimple appears only in movement.
Dimple surgery is intended to be permanent, and in most patients it is. Where a permanent suture is used the tether does not release; where an absorbable suture is used, the scar that forms usually maintains the dimple after the suture dissolves, though it fades in a proportion of patients.
Reversal is possible but cannot be promised, and this is the most important limitation to understand. Dividing the tether and, where necessary, placing a small graft between the layers to stop them re-adhering works in many cases, particularly if done before the scar has fully matured. But the scar itself may hold the dimple regardless. Anyone who is not confident they want a permanent dimple should not have the procedure.
No. Dimple surgery is performed entirely through a small incision inside the cheek, closed with dissolving sutures, so there is no incision on the skin at all and nothing visible externally. The dimple itself is a depression in the skin, not a scar.
What is visible in the early weeks is the depth of the dimple rather than any mark. For the first 4 to 8 weeks it shows at rest, which some patients find conspicuous, and that gradually resolves as the tissues settle.
Position is marked before surgery with you sitting upright and smiling, usually at a point on a line from the corner of the mouth towards the ear, roughly where the natural dimple falls. The exact placement is individual, because a dimple that suits one face sits differently on another, and it is judged against your own smile rather than against a standard measurement.
It is worth spending real time on this at the consultation. A dimple in the wrong position is the outcome most likely to look artificial, and unlike depth it does not settle. Ask to see the marks in a mirror while you smile, and do not agree until you are satisfied with where they are.
6 to 8 weeks, and the honest answer is that they look distinctly unnatural before then. Immediately after dimple surgery and for the first month, the dimple is present even when your face is completely at rest, which is deeper and more constant than a natural dimple ever is.
From around week 6 the dimple recedes at rest and appears mainly on smiling, which is the intended result. By 3 months the depth and behaviour are settled. Patients who judge the result in the first month almost always think it has gone wrong, and almost always change their mind by the third.
Very little. Dimple surgery is done under local anaesthesia and takes 20 to 30 minutes, and most patients take simple painkillers for a day or two at most. The inside of the cheek is tender in the way a mouth ulcer is tender, which makes eating slightly awkward for a few days.
Soft food and antiseptic mouth rinses after everything you eat are the main practical requirements for the first week. Most people return to work on the second day.
2 days is enough. Dimple surgery is a short local-anaesthetic procedure through the inside of the cheek, with no bleeding risk of consequence and no external wound, so it imposes no real travel restriction.
Take mouth rinse and soft food for the journey, and expect the cheek to feel slightly more swollen in the cabin. There is no suture to remove, since intraoral sutures dissolve on their own.
Approximately, and that is worth thinking about carefully. The surgeon marks both sides against your own smile and aims to match them, but two dimples rarely settle to exactly the same depth or behave identically, because the underlying muscle and soft tissue differ between the sides.
Natural dimples are frequently asymmetric too, and many people have only one, so a small difference usually reads as normal rather than as a flaw. A marked difference in position is the version that looks artificial, which is why the marking at consultation matters more than anything that happens in theatre.
A chin cleft can be created, though it is a different operation from a cheek dimple despite the shared name. It is performed through an incision inside the lower lip, working on the soft tissue and, in some techniques, on the underlying bone, and it produces a vertical cleft rather than the round depression of a cheek dimple.
It involves more swelling and a longer recovery than a cheek dimpleplasty, and the bony versions are permanent and substantially harder to reverse. It is sometimes combined with a chin implant or a genioplasty, where the chin is being reshaped anyway.
A faded dimple is simply redone, and this is straightforward. Loss of the dimple happens when the tether releases before the scar holding it has matured, which is more common with absorbable sutures than with permanent ones, and it usually becomes apparent within the first few months.
The repeat procedure is the same as the original, under local anaesthesia through the inside of the cheek, and surgeons often use a permanent suture the second time. Ask before the first operation whether a repeat is included if the dimple fades, because policies differ.
Whether to have dimple surgery at all is a fair question to put to yourself rather than to a surgeon, and it deserves a different answer from most cosmetic procedures. Dimple surgery is cheap, quick and almost painless, which makes it feel like a low-stakes decision. It is not, because it is permanent and reversal cannot be guaranteed.
The patients who are happy afterwards are the ones who wanted a dimple for a long time, thought about where it should sit, and accepted the awkward first 6 weeks knowingly. The ones who regret it tend to have decided quickly. A surgeon who asks how long you have wanted this, and who is willing to suggest waiting, is behaving responsibly rather than obstructively.
A dimple created by dimple surgery is a tethering between two layers of tissue, so it behaves much as a natural dimple does. Significant weight gain adds fat to the cheek and makes the dimple shallower and less defined; weight loss thins the cheek and makes it deeper and more obvious, including at rest.
Ageing has a gentler effect in the same direction. As the cheek loses volume and the skin becomes less elastic over decades, a created dimple tends to become slightly more visible at rest than it was at 30. This is normal rather than a failure of the procedure, and it is one more reason to choose a conservative depth rather than the deepest dimple available.
Yes, and it is a more common request than people assume. A significant number of people have a single natural dimple, so one is neither unusual nor obviously artificial, and patients who already have one dimple frequently ask for a matching one on the other side.
Matching an existing natural dimple is the harder of the two jobs, because the target is a specific depth and position rather than a general aesthetic. Ask the surgeon how they intend to match it, and expect an approximate rather than an exact result, since natural and created dimples behave slightly differently in movement.
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