Cheekbone Botox — PECHE Clinic, Gangnam Station

Cheekbone Botox

Cheekbone Botox weakens the movement by which the muscles around the cheekbone pull the flesh strongly upward when you smile — so the cheekbones look less pushed out to the side or front. What changes is the movement when you smile; the cheekbone's size and height stay the same.

▲ An anatomical drawing with the cheek's skin folded back — the ivory at the top is the cheekbone, and the red band running diagonally down toward the mouth corner is the zygomaticus muscle. When you smile, it lifts the mouth corner and pulls the cheek's flesh up along with it

A muscle runs from the cheekbone down toward the mouth corner — the one that lifts the corner when you smile. As it pulls, the flesh above the cheekbone is dragged strongly upward too, and that gathered flesh is what makes the cheekbone stand out to the side or front. Botulinum toxin reduces the signal telling this muscle to engage, lowering that pulling force.

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When to Consider It

• Your cheekbones stand out noticeably more when you smile than at rest
• Flesh bunches up above your cheekbones when you smile
• People say your upper face looks wide when you make expressions
• The two sides move differently, making your smile look uneven

If your cheekbones look wide or high even at rest, or stand out because your cheeks below have hollowed, this isn't the treatment for that. Showing a lot of gum when you smile involves a different injection site, so it's offered as a separate treatment.

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It Treats Muscle, Not Bone

The first thing to settle in this treatment is whether the prominence comes from the bone or from movement when you smile. The cheekbone's width and height don't change with an injection. What changes is the force with which the muscle crossing it pulls the flesh.

▲ A vertical cross-section of the cheekbone area — from the top: epidermis, pink dermis, yellow subcutaneous fat; the red band beneath is the expression muscle around the cheekbone, and the ivory at the bottom is the cheekbone. The needle tip and teal product stay within the muscle; the bone is unchanged

So this treatment's result is confirmed in the moving face, not the still one. Smile in the mirror and you'll see the cheekbones stand out less; the contour at rest doesn't change. If bone width is the cause, neither the smiling nor the resting look changes — which we tell you before starting.

Treatment area	The muscles crossing the cheekbone area — both sides
Configuration	Cheekbone Botox

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How It's Done

1. Assessment A 3D MetaVu scan captures your facial contours and left–right balance.

2. Expression check You smile wide and lift your mouth corners while we check each side separately: which muscle pulls, and how strongly.

3. Dose decision From the degree of movement and the difference between sides, we decide where to place the doses and how much goes at each point.

4. Numbing A cold roller dulls the sensation before we start.

5. Injection A very fine needle places small, divided doses. The placement is kept narrow and the amount small, so the force that lifts your mouth corners isn't reduced along with it.

6. Aftercare guidance We go over what to follow for the day, and how to check your expressions at 2 weeks.

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Results and Recovery

Item	Details
Where it acts	The muscles crossing the cheekbone area — below the fat layer, above the cheekbone
What changes	The force pulling the flesh upward when you smile — and with it, how much the cheekbones stand out
What doesn't change	The cheekbone's size and height · the contour at rest
When results show	Movement starts easing from days 3–7 and is clearest at week 2 — the signal doesn't cut off at once; it tapers over several days
How long it lasts	3–6 months
Repeat cycle	3–4 months — spaced by how much of the pulling force has returned
Pain	Light, shallow mosquito-bite pricks
Pain control	A cold roller dulls the sensation before we start
Downtime	The marks at the injection points settle within 1–2 hours; you can wash your face and wear makeup after 2–3 hours · bruises, if any, fade within 3–7 days
For the day	Don't lie down for 4–6 hours · skip saunas, hard exercise, and massaging the treated area — all to keep the product from spreading beyond where it was placed

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Expected Reactions and Possible Side Effects

Common, temporary reactions — part of the normal response to injection:

• Marks at the injection points, settling within 1–2 hours
• Bruises, if any, fading within 3–7 days

Anything beyond this is uncommon. If a reaction lasts longer than expected or worsens, contact us and we'll check it with you.

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What We Check Beforehand

If any of these apply to you, let us know during your consultation. We postpone or adjust the timing.

• Pregnancy or breastfeeding
• Conditions affecting the point where nerves meet muscles, such as myasthenia gravis — the very site where botulinum toxin acts, so symptoms could worsen
• Medications that affect nerve–muscle signaling (including some antibiotics)
• If you don't want your smile to change even slightly — this treatment reduces the range of an expression, so we confirm this first
• Cheeks on the hollow side — the cause may not be the muscle, so we check first
• Inflammation or wounds at the injection site
• Aspirin or blood thinners (anticoagulants) — bruising can be heavier, so tell us in advance and we'll plan for it
• Botulinum toxin received elsewhere recently — tell us when, with which product, and how much, and we'll recalculate the total amount given in one session and the interval to your next treatment

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How PECHE Clinic Does It

We decide from the moving face. This area is hard to judge from a still image alone. To the balance confirmed in your scan we add your actual smiling expression, and set the points and dose to standards built from over 90,000 treatments.

We offer four botulinum toxin products. Botulinum toxin is a substance produced by bacteria. The bacteria send it out wrapped in other proteins to keep it intact — but only the core inside produces the effect; the wrapping plays no part in it. The core is identical across all four products; what differs is that some products keep the wrapping, and some strip it away to leave only the core.

Product	Made by	Protein wrapping	Albumin (storage aid)
Newlux	Medytox, Korea	Kept	Used
Coretox	Medytox, Korea	Stripped away	Not used
Xeomin	Merz, Germany	Stripped away	Used
Allergan Botox	AbbVie, USA	Kept	Used

What keeping or stripping the wrapping means. The wrapping protects the core — but it also means foreign proteins unrelated to the effect enter your body along with it. Repeated over the years, your body can come to recognize and respond to those proteins — and then the same dose may not work as well as it once did. Stripped products leave less room for that. For a one-off treatment the difference is negligible; it matters when you plan to continue over several years.

Albumin is a common protein naturally present in human blood. It keeps the core from degrading while the drug is stored as a dried powder — and Coretox does without it too. The cheekbone area is laced with expression muscles, so keeping a small dose narrowly placed is what matters — which is why how narrowly it stays put is what we look at first.

We open the genuine product in front of you — and you can watch it being dissolved through the glass wall, too. Botulinum toxin doesn't keep long once dissolved, so it's stored as a powder and dissolved in saline just before treatment. The more diluted it is, the larger its volume — and the wider it spreads. With expression muscles packed close here, the dilution determines whether it drifts to the neighboring muscle. You see which product is opened right in front of you, and the dissolving itself is visible through the glass wall from the waiting area.

▲ The prep room, seen through the glass from the waiting area — a small-dose, narrow-placement treatment, so what was dissolved, and how much, is visible through this glass

If the cause is different, we don't recommend the treatment. If bone width is the cause, or hollowed cheeks are making the cheekbones stand out by contrast, this treatment won't deliver the change you want. We say so, and point you in another direction. You're welcome to come in just for a consultation.

▲ The 3D MetaVu screen — contours and balance are captured and confirmed before treatment; the movement when you smile is checked separately, in person

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Pricing

The cost of Cheekbone Botox depends on the amount needed and the product used. We confirm the cause and the degree of movement during your assessment, then give you a quote.

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Location

PECHE Clinic 3F, 364 Gangnam-daero, Gangnam-gu, Seoul Right in front of Gangnam Station, Exit 4

The dose is adjusted while watching your expressions, so an easy trip back for the 2-week check genuinely matters.

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FAQ

Q1. Who performs the treatment? A: PECHE physicians who all work to the same injection standards, built from over 90,000 documented treatments. The cheekbone area gathers the muscles that make your smile, and even a slightly wide spread can change its shape — so the placement and dose are set by these standards, not by feel.

Q2. Will my cheekbones actually get smaller? A: The bone doesn't change. What changes is the force with which the muscle pulls the flesh upward when you smile — so the moment you smile, the cheekbones stand out less sharply. If you want the contour at rest to change too, this treatment isn't the right fit.

Q3. Will my smile turn awkward? A: In this area, if the force that lifts your mouth corners is reduced as well, your smile can change. So we start with a small dose, narrowly placed, check your smiling expression together at 2 weeks, and top up if needed.

Q4. Once I start, do I have to keep going? A: It fades gradually over 3–6 months and the original movement returns. If you stop, you simply return to how you were — nothing stands out more than before. We use 3–4 months as the baseline interval, checking how much of the pulling force has returned.

Q5. What should I look for when choosing a clinic? A: Whether they first separate bone from movement as the cause, and whether they judge each side from your actual smile. Skip that confirmation, and you can end up treated when the cause was something else.