Can You Get Dimples as an Adult? A Beverly Hills Surgeon Explains Dimple Creation Surgery

Dimples have a strange kind of pull on people. They show up in almost every conversation about what makes a smile look warm or approachable, and yet most people who want them were simply never born with the anatomy that produces them. Dimpleplasty is the surgical answer to that gap, a short, minimally invasive procedure that creates a natural-looking dimple where one did not exist before. It is one of the smaller procedures Dr. Harris performs at his Beverly Hills practice, but it is also one of the more frequently misunderstood, since patients often arrive with only a rough idea of how it actually works. This guide walks through the anatomy behind dimples, how the surgery recreates that anatomy artificially, who is a good candidate, and what recovery looks like, along with some direct insight from Dr. Harris himself on how he approaches this particular procedure.

Why Some People Have Dimples and Others Don't

A natural dimple is not a fold in the skin the way a wrinkle is. It is the visible result of a small anatomical variation in the buccinator muscle, the thin muscle running through the cheek that helps control the shape of the mouth during chewing and expression. In people born with dimples, there is a minor connection, sometimes described as a bifurcation or a small fibrous band, between this muscle and the overlying skin at one specific point. When the muscle contracts during a smile, that connection pulls the skin inward at that exact spot, creating the indentation everyone recognizes as a dimple.

This variation is present in some people and simply absent in others, in much the same way that some people have attached earlobes and others do not. It has no functional significance and no bearing on health. It is, in the truest sense, a cosmetic quirk of anatomy, which is part of why dimpleplasty is one of the more purely aesthetic procedures Dr. Harris offers. There is no medical problem being corrected here, only a feature being added.

"It's a fun procedure in that sense," Dr. Harris has noted when discussing why patients seek it out. "Nobody comes in unhappy about their face because they don't have dimples the way they might come in unhappy about their nose or their neck. It's more of a want than a need, and that changes the whole tone of the consultation."

How Dimpleplasty Recreates That Anatomy

Because a natural dimple depends on a specific connection between the buccinator muscle and the skin, dimpleplasty works by surgically creating that same connection where it does not already exist. Through a tiny incision made entirely inside the cheek, invisible from the outside, Dr. Harris places a small suture that tethers the skin to the underlying muscle at a precisely chosen point.

The key word here is precisely. The exact location of this suture determines everything about how convincing the eventual result looks, and that location cannot be reliably chosen with a patient lying down on an operating table. Dr. Harris marks the intended dimple location while the patient is sitting upright and smiling naturally, since this is the only position in which the muscle and skin move the way they will during everyday life. A location chosen on a relaxed, supine face often ends up looking off once the patient is upright and animated again.

Once the suture is placed, Dr. Harris typically has the patient smile before the procedure is finished, checking the depth and appearance of the new dimple in real time and adjusting the tension of the suture if the initial result is too subtle or too pronounced. This live feedback loop, checking the result mid-procedure rather than only after the fact, is part of what allows the final outcome to be calibrated so specifically to an individual patient's face.

One Dimple or Two

Patients considering this procedure generally fall into one of two camps: those who want a matching dimple on each cheek, and those who want a single dimple on one side only.

Bilateral dimpleplasty is the more commonly requested version, largely because most people picture a symmetric dimpled smile when they imagine the result. Dr. Harris is candid with patients about a detail that surprises many of them: natural dimples themselves are very often not perfectly symmetric, and a small degree of asymmetry between two surgically created dimples, whether in depth, size, or the exact way they appear during a smile, is completely normal. In fact, forcing perfect symmetry can sometimes make a result look more obviously surgical than a natural, slightly uneven pair.

Unilateral dimpleplasty, a single dimple on one side, is chosen by other patients specifically because a large number of people with natural dimples only have one. A single, well-placed dimple can read as more organic and less immediately noticeable as a cosmetic change, which appeals to patients who want a subtler result.

Dr. Harris walks through both options directly during consultation, since the decision often comes down less to a technical limitation and more to what a given patient is hoping the end result will communicate about their smile.

Who Is a Good Candidate

Good candidates for dimpleplasty are in good general health, have realistic expectations about the fact that the result will be a permanent, dynamic feature rather than something reversible on a whim, and have enough soft tissue in the cheek for a visible fold to form during smiling. Patients with very thin cheeks sometimes see a more subtle result than patients with slightly fuller cheeks, simply because the suture technique relies on some tissue volume to create a well-defined indentation.

Patients who are not ideal candidates include those with active infections or scarring in the treatment area, and those who are still uncertain about wanting a permanent aesthetic change, since this is not a procedure designed with reversal in mind the way an injectable treatment would be.

What the Consultation Actually Involves

A dimpleplasty consultation with Dr. Harris starts with a conversation about what the patient is picturing, whether that is a specific reference photo, a family member's dimples they've always liked, or simply a general aesthetic they find appealing. From there, Dr. Harris spends time watching the patient smile naturally, since identifying where a dimple will look convincing requires seeing exactly how a given patient's cheek folds and moves during a genuine, unposed expression rather than an exaggerated one held for a photo.

"You really have to watch someone smile for real, more than once, before you know where it should go," Dr. Harris has explained. "I'll ask them to talk to me, laugh at something, look away and then smile again when they're not thinking about it. That's when I see the real pattern I'm working with."

Photographs are taken both at rest and while smiling to document the plan and provide a clear baseline for comparison after the procedure. If a patient's expectations seem misaligned with what the anatomy of their own face can realistically produce, whether that's expecting a dimple identical to a specific celebrity's or expecting perfect bilateral symmetry, Dr. Harris addresses this directly rather than letting a mismatched expectation carry through to the day of surgery.

What Happens on Procedure Day

The procedure begins with the same upright marking process described above, confirming the exact location agreed upon in consultation. Local anesthesia numbs the treatment area, and for patients who prefer it, light oral sedation can be added, though general anesthesia is not required for a procedure of this scope.

Through the small internal incision inside the cheek, Dr. Harris places the suture connecting skin to muscle, calibrating tension to produce a dimple that looks proportionate to the rest of the face rather than exaggerated. Because the incision never touches the outer skin, there is no visible external scar of any kind. The entire procedure is typically finished well within an hour, often closer to twenty or thirty minutes for a single dimple, and most patients go home the same day.

Recovery Week by Week

The first few days after dimpleplasty typically involve mild swelling on the inside of the cheek, sometimes with a small amount of visible external swelling, along with some tenderness when chewing or smiling. Soft foods are generally recommended during this early window to avoid putting pressure on the healing internal incision.

By around the one-week mark, most of the swelling has noticeably decreased, and patients generally feel comfortable resuming their normal routine. The dimple's true, settled appearance is not always fully visible yet at this stage, since some residual swelling can still be masking the final result.

Between two and four weeks, healing is essentially complete, and the dimple begins to show its more permanent character during smiling. Some patients notice the dimple looks slightly less dramatic once all swelling has fully resolved compared to how it appeared right after surgery, which is a normal part of the process rather than a sign of a problem.

By six to eight weeks, the result has generally reached its final, stable state, with the dimple behaving consistently during natural smiling and expression.

Is It Really Permanent

Dr. Harris is direct with patients on this point rather than overselling the procedure. In the majority of patients, the internal suture creates a lasting connection that continues producing a visible dimple indefinitely. In a smaller number of cases, the scar tissue that forms around the suture can loosen slightly over time, occasionally causing the dimple to soften or, rarely, disappear entirely over the following months or years.

"I'd rather a patient know that going in than be surprised five years later," Dr. Harris has said on this topic. "Most people keep their result long-term. But I'm not going to promise it's bulletproof forever for every single person, because that wouldn't be honest."

Patients whose dimple does fade can typically undergo a relatively simple touch-up procedure to reinforce the original result.

How This Fits Alongside Other Procedures

Dimpleplasty is most often requested as a standalone procedure, but it does occasionally intersect with other treatments in the same general area of the face. Patients interested in buccal fat removal, which reduces cheek fullness for a more contoured, defined look, sometimes ask whether that procedure would affect an existing or future dimple, since both involve the same region of the cheek. Dr. Harris evaluates this interaction carefully for any patient considering both, since a significant reduction in cheek volume can change how a dimple ultimately reads once it's created.

For patients also interested in adding volume or a subtle lift to the lower face through dermal fillers, dimpleplasty is generally treated as a separate consideration entirely, since fillers address volume while dimpleplasty creates a specific, localized dynamic feature unrelated to overall facial volume.

Why an Artistic Eye Matters for a Procedure This Small

It might seem strange that a procedure as minor as dimpleplasty would benefit from a surgeon's broader training in facial aesthetics, but Dr. Harris considers it one of the clearest examples of why that background matters even on small-scale work. Recognizing exactly where a fold naturally wants to sit on a specific face, rather than defaulting to a generic, textbook location, draws directly on the same pattern-recognition skill that informs his approach to larger procedures like rhinoplasty and facelifting.

"People think of dimpleplasty as this tiny, almost throwaway procedure," Dr. Harris has said. "But getting it wrong is very obvious. If the dimple sits in the wrong spot, or it's too deep, or it doesn't move naturally, people notice immediately, even if they can't articulate exactly why it looks off. Small procedures leave very little room for error, in some ways more than big ones."

This attentiveness to millimeter-level placement is something Dr. Harris has described as a skill built over years of close observation of facial movement and symmetry, one that extends across every procedure at his practice regardless of scale. A facelift has more moving parts, but a poorly placed dimple is arguably more visible to the average observer, precisely because it is such a small, specific detail sitting in the middle of an otherwise familiar face.

Common Misconceptions Patients Bring Into Consultation

A handful of misunderstandings come up often enough in dimpleplasty consultations that addressing them directly tends to smooth out the rest of the conversation.

Some patients assume the procedure involves removing tissue to physically carve out an indentation, the same way they might picture liposuction removing fat to reshape contour. In reality, no tissue is removed at all. The entire mechanism is the internal suture creating a dynamic tether between skin and muscle, not a static, permanent indentation.

Other patients expect the dimple to be visible even when the face is completely at rest, similar to a scar or a physical dent. A well-done dimpleplasty should do the opposite: essentially disappear at rest and appear only during a genuine smile, which is precisely what makes the result look like it could be natural rather than surgically created.

Some patients also assume they can request a specific, dramatic depth simply by asking for it, without regard to their own underlying facial anatomy. Dr. Harris calibrates depth and prominence to what will look proportionate on that individual's face, since a dimple that looks striking on someone with fuller cheeks might look completely disproportionate transplanted onto someone with thinner cheeks and different bone structure.

Finally, some patients arrive expecting a lengthy recovery similar to more invasive facial procedures. As covered above, recovery from dimpleplasty is brief and involves no external incision at all, which is part of what makes it an accessible option for patients specifically drawn to this one feature without wanting to commit to a longer healing process.

Dimpleplasty Compared to Other Cheek Procedures

Patients sometimes conflate dimpleplasty with other treatments in the same general area, and clarifying the distinctions helps set accurate expectations. Buccal fat removal reduces overall cheek volume for a slimmer, more contoured look, addressing fullness broadly rather than creating one localized, dynamic feature. Dermal fillers add volume to the cheeks for a fuller, smoother contour, the functional opposite of what dimpleplasty is designed to do. Facial fat transfer, a more permanent, surgical way to restore lost cheek volume, similarly serves a completely different aesthetic goal.

None of these procedures overlap meaningfully with dimpleplasty in terms of technique or purpose, though Dr. Harris does evaluate any request to combine treatments carefully, since a significant change in cheek volume, whether an increase or a decrease, can influence how a dimple ultimately reads once it has been created.

Why Patients Actually Seek This Out

Understanding the motivation behind this request helps explain why it remains a steady niche within facial plastic surgery. Dimples are broadly associated with warmth, youth, and a more playful or expressive smile across many cultures, and patients who never developed this trait naturally sometimes describe feeling that their smile is missing something they've long admired in others, whether a family member, a friend, or simply a general aesthetic preference.

Dr. Harris finds that patients considering this procedure tend to have thought about the decision for some time rather than requesting it on impulse, given that dimpleplasty, unlike an injectable treatment that can be dissolved, is intended as a lasting change. The relatively low cost and brief recovery compared to more extensive procedures does make it more accessible, but most patients arrive at consultation having already spent real time considering whether this is the right decision for them.

A well-executed dimple should be essentially invisible when the face is at rest and appear only during a genuine smile, which is exactly what separates a convincing result from one that reads as obviously surgical. Patients who come in with a flexible, general appreciation for dimples as a feature, rather than an inflexible expectation of matching a specific photo exactly, tend to walk away considerably happier with their results.

Dr. Harris's approach leans heavily on this idea of matching the procedure to the individual rather than applying a single template. "Every face smiles a little differently," he has said. "My job is figuring out where a dimple belongs on your face specifically, not just where dimples generally go."

Risks and Safety Considerations

Dimpleplasty is considered a low-risk procedure given how minimally invasive it is, but it is still a surgical procedure and carries some risk that patients should discuss directly during consultation. Infection at the incision site, while uncommon, is a possibility with any incision, even one this small, which is why specific oral hygiene instructions are given for the initial healing period given the incision's location inside the mouth.

Asymmetry between two sides in bilateral cases is a possible outcome given natural variation in how each side of a person's face moves, though careful, real-time assessment during the procedure helps minimize any significant difference. As discussed earlier, the result may also soften or, in rare cases, resolve over time in some patients, which is why Dr. Harris frames expectations around durability honestly rather than promising an absolute guarantee.

Cost Considerations

Dimpleplasty is priced lower than more extensive facial procedures, given its brief duration and minimally invasive nature. Bilateral treatment typically costs more than a single dimple, reflecting the additional time and precision required to plan and execute both sides. Patients are encouraged to discuss a specific plan and cost during consultation, which can be scheduled in person or through a virtual consultation for those who want to start the conversation remotely first.

Age Considerations for Dimpleplasty

While dimpleplasty is generally requested by adult patients across a fairly wide age range, Dr. Harris does factor age into how he approaches the consultation. Younger adult patients, often in their twenties, tend to be drawn to the procedure as a subtle enhancement to an already youthful face, and the main consideration for this group is usually ensuring the dimple placement complements their existing smile pattern rather than looking forced.

Middle-aged patients sometimes approach dimpleplasty as one small piece of a broader aesthetic refresh, occasionally alongside other treatments addressing volume loss or skin quality, though the procedure itself remains a standalone decision unrelated to the aging process. Cheek fullness can shift somewhat with age, and Dr. Harris accounts for a patient's current soft tissue volume when planning dimple depth, since a plan made without factoring this in could look different than expected if significant volume changes occur later.

Older patients requesting dimpleplasty are less common but not unheard of, and the same general principles apply: soft tissue thickness and smile pattern matter more than age itself in determining whether a natural-looking result is achievable.

How Dimpleplasty Fits Into a Practice Built on Small Details

Patients occasionally bring up dimpleplasty in the same conversation as other small, detail-oriented requests, and Dr. Harris tends to group these conceptually even though the anatomy involved is entirely different. What connects them is less about technique and more about approach: these procedures reward a surgeon willing to spend real time observing small, specific details of a patient's face rather than treating every consultation as a larger, more generalized conversation.

"Some of the most technically demanding work I do isn't the biggest procedure on the schedule," Dr. Harris has said. "It's often the smallest ones, where there's no room to hide an error, because the change is so specific and so visible if it's off even slightly."

This mindset extends to how Dr. Harris structures follow-up for dimpleplasty patients specifically. Rather than a single postoperative visit, patients are typically seen more than once in the weeks following the procedure so that any concerns about swelling, asymmetry, or the settling process can be addressed directly rather than left to resolve on their own without oversight.

Dimpleplasty for Out-of-Town Patients

Because dimpleplasty involves such a brief procedure and recovery timeline compared to more extensive facial surgeries, it is a request Dr. Harris occasionally receives from patients traveling specifically to Beverly Hills for a short visit. The condensed treatment and healing schedule makes it more feasible to plan around a short trip than many other procedures would allow.

That said, Dr. Harris still recommends allowing enough time locally to attend at least one follow-up visit before traveling home, given the importance of confirming the dimple's early appearance and checking for any signs of swelling or asymmetry that might benefit from an in-person adjustment recommendation. Patients traveling from outside the area are encouraged to discuss trip logistics directly during consultation so an appropriate schedule can be planned around the procedure and initial healing window.