Does sucking fat from your hips and thighs and using it to enhance your cheeks, fill hollow lower eyelids, and build up areas that have lost volume sound too good to be true? Well, for many, it’s a very viable cosmetic option. The process, called Facial Fat Grafting, involves removing fat from one part of the body with gentle liposuction, and then injecting it where it can live up to its best potential. And because you’re injecting your body with something produced by your body, it is commonly considered a more “natural” plastic surgery. While the procedure works wonders all over the body, facial fat grafting (aka a micro fat transplant) is most often performed on the face to smooth over wrinkles and deep frown lines, smile lines, or marionette lines, as well as enlarge and enhance lips, and/or augment your cheeks and chin area.

The facial fat grafting procedure: how it works

Unwanted fat from another area of your body is collected with needles and then gently re-injected to the hollow or deficient area. This precise and very methodical technique ensures a high percentage of fat graft transplant survival. The small filaments of injected fat then cause swelling in the area, thereby correcting the groove, line, or wrinkle, or providing augmentation, as the case may be. Much unlike fat grafting techniques of the past, the small fat filaments, once injected, are far more likely to access a blood supply, and far less likely to be reabsorbed by your body.

Fat grafting to the face: What you need to know

• A more involved procedure than injectable dermal fillers but results last longer than fillers
• The donor area may appear slimmer
• Your fat may contain stem cells that improve tissue quality
• It’s possible for some fat to be reabsorbed by the body, and not all transferred fat survives in the long term
• An additional procedure may be required to achieve your desired results
• Less downtime than more invasive surgical procedures

Facial fat grafting: what to expect

After a micro fat transplant there is typically some bruising and swelling for 10-21 days, particularly on the lips. It is important to follow all of Dr. Mulholland’s instructions for post-surgery recovery to ensure the best possible results! Typically in high animation areas like the face, fat transfers last 1-3 years. SpaMedica’s facial fat grafting patients can expect costs to start from $3000. Additional procedures that could enhance the results of your fat grafting procedure include a face lift, laser resurfacing, an eyelid lift, rhinoplasty, an endoscopic brow lift, blepharoplasty, a ThreadLift, or Botox. On the areas where fat was removed, Dr. Mulholland recommends body heating maintenance treatments roughly every 3 months to keep the skin-tightening effect. These include Venus Freeze, Accent, Exilis, the VASERShape, the Forma or Thermage Body.

Contact SpaMedica in Toronto today to learn more about your facial rejuvenation options and find out whether you’re a candidate for facial fat grafting!

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