Ghoulish looking

Hi, I would greatly appreciate a response to my situation, as I have no idea what has been going on with my face for the past few years. I have tried to do research online, but I have yet to come across any information that seems relevant to my particular situation. I am only 26 years old, and for the past 3 years I have had very visible nasolabial folds that are, for lack of a better term, 3-dimensional. It's as though there are very prominent strips of fat running diagonally across my face. Above and outside these strips, the cheek area is very noticeably indented. I've literally never seen anyone who looked like this before and for the past 3 years I've constantly had people ask me if I'm sick (I'm not). I would really appreciate it if someone could look at the attached pictures and let me know what is causing this rather ghoulish look, as well as any advice. Oh, and I once tried to ask this question on a different forum and the answer that I got was that I was just gaunt and emaciated. To show that this is not the case I am also going to upload a picture of myself without a shirt, so the contrast between my face and body is apparent. I lift weights and am pretty well-built, so the difference in my body and face is pretty striking. Thank you for your time and any info/advice would be greatly, greatly appreciated!

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Cjm101

I have the exact same issue.

EXACTLY the same. And I also lift weights at roughly 6'2" 215lbs. No one else seems to notice anything abnormal though, but I do. My cheeks look rather empty while the nasolabial fold looks like a strip of fat running extending from the corner of my nose to my mouth.

You're first person who I've actually seen with the same facial characteristic. Most people generally have a more full-appearing face and somehow can not pick up on that detail.

Ghoulish looking

Hi, thanks for the response! Though I'm sorry to hear that you're dealing with the same problem, I suppose it's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one out there dealing with this. Since we're both kind of in the same boat I figure you might be interested to hear that I posted my pics in a different forum and had several responses from doctors. They all seem to agree that the issue is not the nasolabial folds, but rather the significant lack of facial volume in the cheek area creates the illusion of very prominent nasolabial folds. There seemed to be a consensus among the docs that the two primary solutions for this are fat grafting and the facial filler 'Sculptra,' and they all seemed to think that sculptra was the better of the two choices. Hope that helps!

Nose

Do you lift weights and eat a low fat diet? You look like you have high muscle mass but low overall body fat can produce this. I notice this facial fat atrophy at the gym on a lot of men. Did you ever do laser resurfacing ? The only other thing that could cause it is certain medications. It doesnt look bad , in certain lighting I'm sure it's more apparent. If it bothers you , maybe look into fat grafting.