Buccal fat pad

The buccal fat pad (also called Bichat’s fat pad, after Marie François Xavier Bichat, and the buccal pad of fat), is one of several encapsulated fat masses in the cheek. It is a deep fat pad located on either side of the face between the buccinator muscle and several more superficial muscles (including the masseter, the zygomaticus major, and the zygomaticus minor). The inferior portion of the buccal fat pad is contained within the buccal space. It should not be confused with the malar fat pad, which is directly below the skin of the cheek. It should also not be confused with jowl fat pads. It is implicated in the formation of hollow cheeks and the nasolabial fold, but not in the formation of jowls.

Nomenclature and structure

The buccal fat pad is composed of several parts, although exactly how many parts seems to be a point of disagreement and no single consistent nomenclature of these parts has been observed. It was described as being divided into three lobes, the anterior, intermediate, and posterior, “according to the structure of the lobar envelopes, the formation of ligaments, and the source of the nutritional vessels”. Also, there are four extensions from the body of the buccal fat pad: the sublevator, the melolabial, the buccal, and the pterygoid. The nomenclature of these extensions derives from their location and proximal muscles.