High Cheekbones vs Low Cheekbones – Causes & Treatments

High cheekbones are cheekbones whose highest, most prominent point sits close to the eyes, roughly level with the bridge of the nose. Low cheekbones have their most prominent point lower down the face, closer to the level of the nostrils. Your cheekbones are your zygomatic bones, and whether they sit high or low depends mainly on the bone structure you inherit. To tell which you have, feel along the bone under your eye for the point that sticks out most, or look in a mirror under an overhead light to see where the highlight falls, and compare that point with your nose: level with the bridge of the nose means high cheekbones, level with the nostrils means low cheekbones.

Neither type is better or worse than the other. High and low are simply descriptions of where the cheekbone peaks, and most people sit somewhere in between. This guide explains what cheekbones are, how to tell if you have high or low cheekbones, what decides their shape, how they change with age, and the options if you would like more definition, from cheek fillers to facial fat transfer and cheek implants. If you are thinking about changing how your cheekbones look, talk it through first with a GMC-registered plastic surgeon, who can examine the bone and the soft tissue over it and explain what is realistic.

What Are Cheekbones?

Cheekbones are the two zygomatic bones (also called the malar bones or zygomas), one on each side of the face, just below and to the outer side of the eye sockets. Each zygomatic bone forms the rounded prominence of the cheek and part of the floor and outer wall of the eye socket. A thin bar of bone, the zygomatic arch, runs back from it towards the ear, and you can feel it just in front of your ear. The cheekbone joins the upper jaw (maxilla) at the front, the frontal bone above the outer corner of the eye, and the temporal bone at the side of the head.

Everyone has cheekbones. What varies is how visible they are, which depends on the shape and size of the bone and on how much fat, muscle and skin lies over it. The cheek you see in the mirror is a combination of all of these layers, which is why two people with similar bones can have cheeks that look quite different.

How to Tell If You Have High or Low Cheekbones

High and low are everyday descriptions rather than medical categories, but these simple checks will give you a good idea of where your cheekbones sit.

• The finger test. Place your fingertips just below the outer corner of one eye and press gently along the bone towards your ear until you find the point that sticks out most. If that point is level with the bridge of your nose or close to your lower eyelid, you have high cheekbones. If it is nearer the level of your nostrils, your cheekbones are low.
• The mirror test. Stand under an overhead light without make-up and look straight ahead. The most prominent part of the cheekbone catches the light, with a shadow underneath it. A highlight just below the outer corner of the eye suggests high cheekbones; a highlight lower down, nearer the middle of the cheek, suggests low cheekbones.
• Check at rest, not while smiling. Smiling lifts the soft tissue of the cheek and bunches up the “apples” of the cheeks, which can make cheekbones look higher than they are. The bone does not move, so judge its position with a relaxed face.
• Look at your side profile. From the side, high cheekbones tend to show as a defined curve just below the eye, while low cheekbones show as fullness lower down in the middle of the cheek.

Most people fall somewhere between the two, and the two sides of the face are rarely identical. If one cheekbone looks noticeably higher or flatter than the other, our guide to facial asymmetry explains why that happens and what can be done about it.

High Cheekbones vs Low Cheekbones: What’s the Difference?

The difference between high and low cheekbones is where the cheekbone’s most prominent point sits on the face. It describes height, not size or attractiveness. When people talk about types of cheekbones, they usually mean high, low, flat, wide (big) or prominent cheekbones, and these describe different things.

What Do High Cheekbones Look Like?

With high cheekbones, the widest part of the face is usually just below the eyes. Light catches the upper edge of the bone, and there is often a soft shadow or slight hollow beneath it, which gives the face a more angular, sculpted look. High cheekbones are also called high-set cheekbones.

What Do Low Cheekbones Look Like?

With low cheekbones, the most prominent part of the cheek sits closer to the level of the nostrils, and the widest part of the face tends to be lower in the midface. The cheek often looks fuller and rounder, with a softer contour below the bone. Low-set cheekbones are a normal variation: there is no right or wrong when it comes to cheekbones, and what people find attractive is largely a matter of personal and cultural preference.

Low Cheekbones vs Flat Cheekbones

Low cheekbones are often confused with flat cheekbones, but they describe different things. Low cheekbones describe vertical position: where the malar bone peaks relative to the nose. Flat cheekbones describe projection: how far the bone stands forward from the face, whatever its height. You can have flat cheekbones that are high-set, or prominent cheekbones that are low-set, and the treatment that helps each can differ. A hollow below the cheekbone is different again, as it can come from a loss of soft tissue volume rather than the shape of the bone; our guide to sunken cheeks covers this in detail.

Big, Wide and Prominent Cheekbones

“Big”, “wide” or “prominent” cheekbones describe yet another dimension: how far the cheekbones extend out to the sides of the face, rather than how high or how flat they are. This is measured as the bizygomatic width, the distance across the face at cheekbone level. A wide bizygomatic width is a feature of heart-shaped and diamond-shaped faces, where the cheekbones form one of the widest parts of the face. Neither wide nor narrow cheekbones are right or wrong; how they look depends on how they relate to the rest of your face, particularly the width of your jaw and forehead.

What Decides Whether You Have High or Low Cheekbones?

The position and shape of your cheekbones are largely set by the bone structure you inherit. The cheekbones grow along with the rest of the facial skeleton through childhood and adolescence, and the fat, muscle and skin over them keep changing throughout life. High or low cheekbones are normal variations in facial structure; on their own, they are not a sign of good or poor health.

High Cheekbones in Men and Women

It is often said that men have higher cheekbones than women, but a study that measured this did not find a clear difference in height. A 2021 CT study of 101 Thai adults ↗ (52 men and 49 women) measured where the most prominent point of the cheekbone sat. The men’s cheekbone peaks sat slightly higher on average, but the difference in height was not statistically significant. The clear differences were in width and projection: in the men, the peak of the cheekbone sat further out to the side and the face measured wider, while in the women the cheekbone projected further forward^[1]. The study looked at one population, so its results may not apply to everyone, but it suggests that typically male and female cheekbones differ more in width and forward projection than in height.

Does Ethnicity Affect Cheekbones?

Facial bone structure varies between populations as well as between individuals, so cheekbone width and projection can differ on average between groups. For example, a 2016 3D imaging study created average faces from scans of 138 Korean adults and compared them with the average faces of Chinese adults in Xi’an and white adults in Houston. The average Korean male and female faces were wider, with more prominent cheekbone (malar and zygomatic) areas, than the average white faces, and the average Korean and Chinese faces also differed from each other^[2].

Averages like these describe groups, not individuals. There is wide variation within every population, and high, low, wide and narrow cheekbones are found in people of every background.

Do Cheekbones Change With Age?

Yes, but usually not in the way people expect. The cheekbones grow with the rest of the face during childhood and adolescence. In adulthood, the cheek tends to look less prominent with age rather than more, for three linked reasons.

The bone underneath changes. The facial skeleton continues to remodel throughout adult life. A 2009 CT study of 100 adults ↗ compared people aged 18 to 30 with people aged 55 to 65. In the older group, the upper jaw and the lower rim of the eye socket had receded, the soft tissue at the front of the cheek was less prominent, and the changes appeared more marked in women^[3]. A 2012 review describes the midface skeleton, particularly the upper jaw, and the lower outer rim of the eye socket as areas with a strong tendency to lose bone with ageing^[4].

The cheek fat moves downwards. The fat of the cheek is divided into separate compartments. A CT study of 12 cadaver heads found that in the older group the midfacial fat compartments sat further below the rim of the eye socket, the volume within each compartment had shifted downwards, and the deep fat at the inner cheek had lost volume^[5]. As the volume shifts down, the area over the cheekbone loses fullness and the lower cheek can look heavier. Our guide to saggy cheeks explains these changes in more detail.

The skin and muscles change. Skin gradually loses collagen and elastin, so it becomes thinner and less firm, and facial muscle tone may also lessen. Together with the bone and fat changes, this can make cheekbones look lower and less defined than they did in earlier years, even though the cheekbone itself has not dropped.

These are the same changes that reduce definition elsewhere in the face, and they follow a reasonably predictable sequence: our guide to facial ageing at 30, 40 and 50 sets out what tends to happen when.

Why Are My Cheekbones So Prominent?

If your cheekbones have always been prominent, this reflects the shape of your bones and the amount of tissue over them. If they have started to look more prominent recently, one possible reason is a loss of fat over them, for example after weight loss: with less fat covering the bone, its outline shows more clearly. Our guide to how rapid weight loss changes the face explains this in more detail.

See a GP if a lump or swelling appears over a cheekbone and does not go away, or if one cheekbone changes shape for no obvious reason. After an injury to the face, go to A&E if your cheek looks flattened or you have numbness in the cheek or upper lip, double vision, or difficulty opening your mouth, as these can be signs of a broken cheekbone.

Are High Cheekbones Attractive?

High, well-defined cheekbones are often mentioned in beauty and fashion writing, but research on cheekbones and attractiveness is limited and measures specific things. A 1990 paper reporting three studies of how men’s faces were rated found that men with prominent cheekbones, together with features such as large eyes, a large chin and a big smile, were seen as more attractive than other men^[6]. That research was about how prominent the cheekbones were rather than how high, and it is one paper from more than 30 years ago.

The face shapes most often linked with high cheekbones are the heart-shaped (or V-shaped) face, with a broader forehead and a narrower jaw and chin, and the diamond-shaped face, with a narrower forehead and jaw and the cheekbones as the widest point. These are descriptions, not rankings. What people find attractive varies between individuals and cultures and shifts over time, and there is no right or wrong cheekbone position.

These preferences are worth holding lightly. Cheekbone prominence is one of the features scored in online appearance communities, where zygomatic projection is estimated from selfies and converted into a rating. Our guide to looksmaxxing covers why those measurements are unreliable and what repeatedly making them does to how people feel about their own faces. For a more considered look at facial proportion, our guide to facial beauty standards and the golden ratio explains where the mathematics is useful and where it stops being so.

How to Get More Defined Cheekbones With Surgery

None of the operations described here moves the cheekbone itself. Instead, they add projection over the bone, restore volume that has been lost, or reduce fullness below the bone so that it stands out more. Each route suits a different starting point and goal, from a long-lasting structural change to a subtle contrast enhancement. At Centre for Surgery, facial fat transfer and buccal fat removal are carried out by GMC-registered plastic surgeons, who will help you work out whether either is right for you.

1. Cheek Implants

Cheek implants (malar implants) are solid implants placed directly on the cheekbone to increase its projection, and they can be shaped and positioned to make the cheekbone look higher or more prominent. Silicone is one of the most widely used materials for facial implants, including in the cheek^[7]. Implants are intended to be long-lasting, which makes them an option for cheekbones that are naturally flat or uneven, where there is not enough underlying bone prominence for volume treatments to work with, rather than for cheekbones that are simply hidden by fat or loose skin.

Cheek implants carry the risks of any implant surgery. A 2023 narrative review of 11 studies of silicone facial implants in the chin, jaw angle and cheek found complications reported in most of the studies, including asymmetry, implant displacement, bone resorption or erosion, infection, bleeding (haematoma), swelling, pain, altered sensation and dissatisfaction with the result^[7].

If you are considering cheek implants, it is worth asking first whether facial fat transfer or cheek fillers could give the cheekbone definition you are looking for without an implant. At Centre for Surgery, our GMC-registered plastic surgeons can assess whether facial fat transfer is suitable for you.

2. Facelift

A facelift, also known as rhytidectomy, is a surgical procedure designed to counteract the effects of ageing on the face by lifting and repositioning the skin and deeper tissues. It does not change the cheekbone, but lifting cheek tissue that has slipped down can restore some fullness over it. In a 2015 study of 43 patients who had one particular deep-plane facelift technique, 3D imaging at least a year later showed an average gain of 3.2 mL of volume in each side of the midface^[8]. Options include a traditional facelift, Neck Lift, Mini Facelift and Brow Lift. Like any operation, a facelift carries risks, including bleeding under the skin (haematoma), infection, scarring, numbness and, rarely, injury to the facial nerve; our guide to facelift complications explains each of these.

3. Facial Fat Transfer to the Cheeks

Facial fat transfer is another way to enhance the cheeks, using your own fat to add volume over and around the cheekbones.

Fat is harvested from your body (such as the abdomen or thighs) with liposuction and then transferred to the facial areas that need volume, such as the cheeks, under the eyes or the nasolabial folds. Not all of the transferred fat survives. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 27 studies involving 1,011 patients found that the proportion of facial fat graft retained ranged from 26% to 83%, with a pooled average of 47%, and concluded that the exact amount retained cannot currently be predicted; complications were reported in 2.8% of patients^[9]. If you are worried about looking overdone, our guide to looking overfilled after fat transfer to the face addresses that concern. Facial fat grafting can also be combined with other procedures, such as a Lower Face Lift, Neck Lift or Chin Liposuction.

4. Buccal Fat Removal

Buccal fat removal is a cosmetic procedure that removes part of the buccal fat pad, which sits deep in the lower cheek, to slim the face below the cheekbones. It does not increase the height or projection of the cheekbones, but by reducing volume in the lower cheek it creates more contrast between the lower cheek and the cheekbone, which can make the cheekbone look more defined.

This is worth thinking about carefully rather than pursuing for definition alone. Buccal fat removal is permanent and irreversible, and the face loses volume naturally with age, which is why we prefer conservative partial removal and decline a meaningful proportion of consultations for it. It also carries risks: a 2025 systematic review of 12 studies including 308 patients ↗ found that about one in four had some form of complication after buccal fat removal. The complications reported most often were swelling, difficulty opening the mouth (trismus), pain and asymmetry, while facial nerve paralysis, infection and haematoma were rare^[10]. Our guides to chubby cheeks and how to get a slimmer face and non-surgical alternatives to buccal fat removal cover the options for anyone who wants the effect without the permanence.

Cheek Fillers: Defined Cheekbones Without Surgery

Cheek fillers are injections used to add volume and definition to the cheeks without surgery. They are typically made from hyaluronic acid, a sugar molecule that occurs naturally in the body, injected over the cheekbone to lift and define the cheek. Hyaluronic acid filler is adjustable and can be dissolved, so it is one way to try a look before considering anything permanent.

How long cheek filler lasts depends on the product, the amount used and the individual. In a 2013 randomised controlled study of a volumising hyaluronic acid filler in adults aged 35 to 65 with age-related loss of cheek volume, 85.6% of the 235 people treated had a measurable improvement at six months, and nearly half still had their correction at two years^[11]. Other products, and treatment in younger people who want extra definition rather than restored volume, may give different results.

Fillers are not free of risk. They can cause bruising, swelling, tenderness and lumps, and infection can occur. The most serious risk is filler entering or blocking a blood vessel, which in rare cases has caused sudden loss of vision. A 2019 review identified 48 newly published cases of partial or complete vision loss after filler injections between 2015 and 2018, most often after injections in the nose, between the eyebrows, the forehead and the nasolabial folds; hyaluronic acid filler was involved in 81.3% of these cases^[12]. Always choose a trained, registered healthcare professional who can recognise and manage complications.

How to Make Your Cheekbones Look Higher With Make-Up

Making your cheekbones look more prominent doesn’t always require treatment. With some simple make-up techniques, you can contour your cheekbones by: applying a contour shade slightly darker than your natural skin tone just beneath the cheekbones and blending upwards towards your ears; applying a highlighter to the highest point of your cheekbones, where light naturally hits; optionally adding blush on the apples of your cheeks for a natural flush; and setting your make-up with a setting spray or powder.

Cheek Fillers vs Fat Transfer vs Cheek Implants: Which Lasts Longest?

Surgery is not automatically the right choice for more prominent cheekbones. The right option depends on what is causing the look you want to change and how permanent you want the result to be.

• Cheek fillers are temporary and adjustable. Correction lasting up to two years has been reported for a volumising hyaluronic acid filler^[11], and hyaluronic acid filler can be dissolved if needed, but repeat treatment is needed to keep the effect.
• Facial fat transfer uses your own tissue and can give a long-lasting result, but how much of the fat survives varies widely and cannot be predicted exactly^[9].
• Cheek implants are designed as a long-term structural change and can be tailored to the contours of an individual face, but they involve surgery and carry implant risks such as displacement, asymmetry and infection^[7].

Frequently Asked Questions

Cheek Treatment at Centre for Surgery

Centre for Surgery is a CQC-regulated private hospital on Baker Street in Marylebone, London, offering cosmetic and aesthetic treatments. Our approach is patient-centric, focusing on understanding your individual needs and wishes through an honest and transparent consultation process. Facial fat transfer and buccal fat removal are carried out by GMC-registered plastic surgeons, and we recommend a two-week cooling-off period between your consultation and any surgery.

We offer a wide range of treatments including Facial Surgery, Breast Procedures, Body Contouring, Men’s Aesthetic Treatments, and non-surgical options including anti-wrinkle injections, dermal fillers, Fotona4D, and Morpheus8.

To book a consultation: 020 7993 4849 | contact@centreforsurgery.com | 95-97 Baker Street, London W1U 6RN

References

1. Jirawatnotai S, Sriswadpong P. The difference in the location of the malar summit between genders in Southeast Asians with appropriate references. Archives of Craniofacial Surgery 2021;22(2):78–84. doi:10.7181/acfs.2020.00423 ↗
2. Kim JY, Kau CH, Christou T, et al. Three-dimensional analysis of normal facial morphologies of Asians and Whites: a novel method of quantitative analysis. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open 2016;4(9):e865. doi:10.1097/GOX.0000000000000853 ↗
3. Richard MJ, Morris C, Deen BF, et al. Analysis of the anatomic changes of the aging facial skeleton using computer-assisted tomography. Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 2009;25(5):382–386. doi:10.1097/IOP.0b013e3181b2f766 ↗
4. Mendelson B, Wong CH. Changes in the facial skeleton with aging: implications and clinical applications in facial rejuvenation. Aesthetic Plastic Surgery 2012;36(4):753–760. doi:10.1007/s00266-012-9904-3 ↗
5. Gierloff M, Stöhring C, Buder T, et al. Aging changes of the midfacial fat compartments: a computed tomographic study. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 2012;129(1):263–273. doi:10.1097/PRS.0b013e3182362b96 ↗
6. Cunningham MR, Barbee AP, Pike CL. What do women want? Facialmetric assessment of multiple motives in the perception of male facial physical attractiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1990;59(1):61–72. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.59.1.61 ↗
7. Gafar Ahmed M, AlHammad ZA, Al-Jandan B, et al. Silicone facial implants, to fixate or not to fixate: a narrative review. Cureus 2023;15(2):e34524. doi:10.7759/cureus.34524 ↗
8. Jacono AA, Malone MH, Talei B. Three-dimensional analysis of long-term midface volume change after vertical vector deep-plane rhytidectomy. Aesthetic Surgery Journal 2015;35(5):491–503. doi:10.1093/asj/sju171 ↗
9. Lv Q, Li X, Qi Y, et al. Volume retention after facial fat grafting and relevant factors: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Aesthetic Plastic Surgery 2021;45(2):506–520. doi:10.1007/s00266-020-01612-6 ↗
10. Albuquerque MC, Arruda KAR, Xavier Junior GF, et al. Prevalence of complications of buccal fat removal: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Cranio-Maxillo-Facial Surgery 2025;53(4):363–369. doi:10.1016/j.jcms.2024.12.014 ↗
11. Jones D, Murphy DK. Volumizing hyaluronic acid filler for midface volume deficit: 2-year results from a pivotal single-blind randomized controlled study. Dermatologic Surgery 2013;39(11):1602–1612. doi:10.1111/dsu.12343 ↗
12. Beleznay K, Carruthers JDA, Humphrey S, et al. Update on avoiding and treating blindness from fillers: a recent review of the world literature. Aesthetic Surgery Journal 2019;39(6):662–674. doi:10.1093/asj/sjz053 ↗