The old adage goes, “Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder”. The human brain’s ability to process attractiveness is almost instinctive and takes only less than a second to complete. History implies that there is a magical ratio that makes objects proportionately pleasing to the eye. This number is known as the Golden Ratio (Phi or 1:1.618), and is nature’s universal number of symmetry. Hence, our human perception of beauty could actually be hardwired – the closer a face is proportionated to the Golden Ratio, the more beautiful it becomes.

But first things first, experienced aesthetic doctors create the outline by refining facial shape. The key to achieving an attractive facial shape lies in the cheek and chin. A beautiful and youthful face almost always has a full and wide mid-face, and importantly, a tapered lower face.

I sense your back straightening now. “I don’t want chubby cheeks!” I almost hear you say. Sit tight and hear me out.

At the heart of a youthful face is a triangle. The cheeks are full and wide, and the lower face is small and tapered. As we age, the cheeks flatten, and lax skin droops, flipping the triangle so that the widest part of the triangle is now at the jawline. It is no wonder that cosmetic makeup artists enjoy blushing the apple of the cheeks and shading the jawline to restore that youthful, happy look.

According to Dr Michelle Lim from The SW1 Clinic, this is one of her favourite as her patients derive instant gratification from this procedure. She first restores the triangle of youth by plumping the cheeks slightly for a softer, more natural and youthful look with hyaluronic acid dermal fillers. The benefits are multifold. “With this technique, patients appreciate the changes more because apart from the instant cheek volumisation, they are also usually able to observe immediately that the laugh lines are equally alleviated, as are the corners of the mouth, and even subtle lifting of the sagging skin, which has drooped towards the jawline with time” says Dr Lim. Some of Dr Lim’s patients also report alleviation of dark eye circles due to her technique of “blunt needling” where she uses a blunt needle with a single entry point and deftly places small aliquots of fillers in specific places near the tear trough while simultaneously treating the cheeks, instead of a sharp needle directly into one spot at a time.

Next, Dr Lim refines the jawline by either a combination of Botox jaw slimming injections or Botox skin microinjections, which is more suitable for people who have more skin laxity issues. “If a patient also has a weaker chin relative to the rest of the face, adding some chin fillers will further refine proportion and can either make the face appear either less flat, smaller, sharper or the entire jawline look more chiseled, depending on how I inject it.”

According to Dr Lim, facial rejuvenation with dermal fillers doesn’t have to be scary. “Strategically placed, a small amount of fillers in the right places can lift wonderfully”. Dermal fillers today come in different consistencies or “hardness” and feel natural to touch under the skin. The other strengths of this technique are its excellent recovery profile as well as the durability of mid-face fillers due to the relative immobility of cheeks during normal facial expressions.

As you can see, filler rejuvenation can be simple and yet effective. Where cheeks are concerned, volume is the new sexy.