Successful facial and body results from any cosmetic appearance or plastic surgery procedure are those that restore harmony and balance, retaining the ‘real you’. Which is why fat grafting, or fat transfer, continues its winning streak as a sought-after volumizing and restorative procedure from head to toe.
Facial aging isn’t just sagging skin and fine lines and wrinkles, volume loss also plays its role. As the years tick on and genetic, sun exposure and environmental all take their toll, we lose fat in key areas — under the eyes, around the cheeks, and along the jawline — leading to a hollow or tired look. The upper face especially can experience more noticeable fat loss.
Fat grafting helps the face regain its natural softness and youthful curves – and it is often performed in conjunction with a face lift. Fat is typically harvested from the abdomen, hips, or thighs, purified, and then carefully reinjected into targeted areas targeting areas like the cheeks, tear troughs, and naso labial folds. While some fat is reabsorbed naturally over time, on average 60% if the transferred fat survives in its new location, however some people may require more than one transfer to achieve the desired result.
Fat grafting isn't a new phenomenon, it dates all the way back to 1893, when German surgeon Gustav Neuber first used a patient’s own fat to repair soft tissue. Over the decades, the technique has been refined dramatically, and fast forward to today, it plays a key role in modern plastic and regenerative surgery procedures body-wideincluding the face, breasts, and hands.
Not every woman wants to breast implant surgery to volumize and reshape their breasts. Breastaugmentation with fat transfer instead of an implant, is an ideal for thoseseeking subtle results, who have smaller breasts, or asymmetrical shapes, orare experiencing volume loss due to ageing, weight loss, pregnancy orbreastfeeding – or all of the above!
A dramaticshift in breast size is not something fat grafting will do, instead it aims to:
Often fat grafting will be combined with a breast lift to lift the nipple potion higher, lift sagging breast tissue and better position the breasts on the chest wall.
Fat isn’tjust bound for the contouring tool-kit, it also harnesses biological powers. Fattissue is a rich source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which play a key rolein healing and tissue repair. In fact, MSCs are 300–500 times more concentratedin fat than in bone marrow. This is a huge plus in the fat department assurgeons can graft fat to help improve the texture and quality of damaged skin,promote greater healing in scars and chronic wounds.
Fat grafting is performed under different types of anaesthesia, depending on how much fat is needed. For smaller treatments (like under the eyes), local anaesthesia may be enough. For larger areas — such as breast enhancement — general anaesthesia maybe used. Typically, downtime is minimal following a facial fat grafting procedure, with swelling and bruising occurring across the first one-to two- weeks and light exercise and daily routines resumed to normal within two-to-three weeks. Recoveryfollowing breast fat grafting has a complete time frame of two weeks to 12weeks, with compression garments worn for a week or two, and a return to work within two-to-fourteen days. To learn more about how fat grafting might helpyou achieve your facial and body goals reach out to our team of cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery experts.
