Hi all, Just thought I would get in the mix here, as a worried mama who also has a child with this injury. I've read through this message board countless times over the past 3 years hoping to find an answer or solution, so I thought I would throw in my 2 cents and experience in case it could help anyone else.
My son was 3 when he fell into a corner and got a traumatic cheek dimple. He is 6 now and it is still there when he smiles or talks, sometimes quite prominently. It is permanent.
We have seen many doctors (we live in the NYC area) and done a couple of different treatments, which I am happy to share my experience with. The bad news is that none of the treatments have really worked thus far (this includes surgical fat grafting). But we aren't giving up-- and are in the process of other treatments that may help and I will update the thread accordingly.
First off, we have seen three or so pediatric plastic surgeons who all recommended subcision with fat grafting. In July of last year, we decided to try it. The procedure itself wasn't a terrible experience for my son, but the fat didnt really take, so the doctor recommended we repeat the process. We aren't quite ready to do that yet, so I decided to go back to the drawing board.
I took my son to see a dermatologist who specializes in subcision, and about a week ago he had his first subcision treatment. I figure that trying to really "release" the scar tissue might be a better first step (and much less intense/invasive experience for him) and then we could revisit the fat grafting thing later, when we are all ready.
Subcision is also usually needed in a series, and so far sadly we aren't seeing much of a change in the dimple/depression. I will update after our next subcision treatments (likely sometime over the summer).
Additionally, our surgeon who performed the initial fat grafting also gave us the option of just putting filler into the scar until my son gets older and can more easily handle another surgery. We are seriously considering going this route.
It seems pretty low risk and like it could potentially correct the issue, albeit short term. I'm wondering the degree of correction we could get from filler.... Not sure.
I know there are much more serious problems that parents have to deal with, but it still pains me daily to see his beautiful little face scarred like this, and I hope that I can help him correct it.
One thing I will say, and I hope this message reaches someone-- but if your child hits their face hard (anywhere on the face), get ice on it IMMEDIATELY and ice religiously over the next 24-48 hours. We did ice it, but only for a short period bc my son was upset by the cold. I truly believe that if we had done this more consistently in that first 24 hours, we could have avoided the scar or perhaps at least minimized it. I didnt know how serious it was at the time, and I majorly regret not taking better precautionary steps since my son seemed mostly fine. I am now a bit of a psychopath when it comes to putting ice on my children's facial boo boos but I'm not taking anymore chances.
Anyhow, I hope this information is helpful to someone. I will update periodically as we go through treatments. Praying for good news on my next update.