Ideal candidates for a fat transfer to face procedure who have started to notice a hollow or shallow appearance to individual or multiple areas of the face, or those who desire augmentation of features such as the lips, cheekbones, chin or jaw. There is no “perfect age” for fat grafting to the face, because age-related changes are determined by genetics, lifestyle, and many other factors.

You may want to consider facial fat grafting if you exhibit the following:

• Under-eye hollows
• Sunken temples and cheeks
• A desire to augment facial structures such as the lips, cheekbones, chin or jaw
• Folds (such as nasolabial) or depressions on the face
• Other areas of the face lacking in volume

Candidates should be healthy and have enough fat on potential donor areas – like the hips, flanks, and thighs – to be harvested for treatment. Patients should also have realistic expectations about their outcome, and they should understand that the fat transfer to face procedure may need to be repeated more than once to achieve ideal results.

Prior to your fat grafting to face procedure, we will identify which area(s) of your body will be used as a donor site. During the procedure, this site (or sites) will be injected with an anesthetic and a small incision will be made for access to harvest the fat. The appropriate amount of fat will then be gently suctioned out through this incision using a specialized cannula.

Once the fat is removed, it is processed and prepared for transfer. Fat is typically processed using a centrifuge to separate the fat from fluids and oils that have been removed from the body. This ensures that only healthy, viable fat cells will be injected into the treatment areas and helps to promote fat viability.

When the fat has been appropriately processed and purified, it is then transferred to the recipient area. A tiny incision will be made so that fat can be injected into the treatment area using a cannula. With every pass of the cannula, small amounts of fat are gradually placed into the treatment site until the desired fullness is achieved.

Recovery from fat transfer usually isn’t overly burdensome, but you should expect to look puffy and a bit bruised for about one to two weeks.  You may also experience mild discomfort during the first week, appropriate pain medication will be prescribed to help reduce pain. The majority of swelling should disappear within a month, and bruising will subside in about 10-14 days.

Approximately 50-60 percent of transferred fat cells will survive after the procedure, so it’s common for facial fat grafting (and fat grafting in general) to be repeated in order to achieve ideal volume. However, it’s difficult to predict if a patient will need to undergo another treatment. Generally speaking, patients usually wait around three-to-six months after their first fat grafting to face procedure before deciding if an additional treatment is necessary.

The transferred fat cells that survive in the treatment area will generally stay there indefinitely. The fat will continue to age naturally with your body and it will behave just like other fat in the face. This means that it may still decrease in volume over time, but you can expect your results to last for many years to come. Significant weight fluctuations may affect your results, so it’s best to stay at a stable weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle for optimal results.

The incisions made for harvesting fat are usually very small and located within natural creases of the body, whenever possible. Likewise, the incisions made for the fat transfer are also very small and well camouflaged. Once your incisions heal, any remaining scars will likely be imperceptible.

Facial fat grafting carries few risks, especially when the procedure is performed on appropriately selected patients. It’s also important for patients to closely follow their surgeon’s pre-operative and post-operative guidelines for a safe and successful recovery. Complications are rare, but when they do occur, they usually include asymmetry or poor healing. However, doing face lipofilling in correct way, you can expect your facial fat transfer procedure to be carried out with the highest standard of care and safety.