Fat Grafting

Fat grafting is part of the years of medical training a board certified plastic surgeon undergoes at school as well as during their residency and fellowship. Other doctors typically do not undergo as extensive training. For this reason, start your research by selecting a board certified plastic surgeon. That way, you can be more confident knowing that they have at least had the necessary training in the technique.

Next, find out their experience performing the procedure as a fully licensed plastic surgeon. Since fat transfer can be performed on various parts of the face and body, it's a good idea to see if their experience includes treating the area you're interested in improving. 

Meet with surgeons, and rely on your instinct to make a decision. If you have good rapport with your surgeon and trust them, it can dramatically improve your satisfaction.

Seeing before and after photos can also help.

Fat injections, when targeting the face, can be helpful to improve sagging, wrinkles and volume loss. Fat can create beautiful, natural looking results that last longer than temporary dermal fillers.

Usually, the fat transfer procedure takes place in our fully accredited, state-of-the-art surgical facility. However, for minor improvements, the procedure may be performed at our office.

This depends on the amount of fat harvested and transferred.

During the first part of the procedure, liposuction, anesthesia is administered. This dramatically improves comfort levels, both during and shortly after the surgery. For small amounts of fat harvesting, the procedure and recovery is well tolerated. For bigger amounts, the procedure may involve some discomfort that can be easily controlled with pain medication.

Fat grafting is a three step procedure. 

The first step involves liposuction. Liposuction gently removes fat from an area of the body that has an excess of it, such as the hips, flanks or thighs.

The second step involves purifying the fat. This is typically done by straining the harvested fat or putting it in a centrifuge. The fat cells are separated from other fluids and tissues during this process.

The third and last step involves taking this purified fat and injected it into the area(s) that require improvement. Multiple injections may be made.

It depends on your body and how much correction is needed to achieve your goals. The entire procedure may take 1 hour or much longer, but some of that time is reserved for purifying the fat. For this reason, you won't be "under" the whole time. 

If the transferred fat "takes" to its new location, then the results are permanent. However, weight fluctuations and aging can negatively impact results.

Some fat may be reabsorbed by the body. If this occurs, a touchup may be necessary.

Absolutely. Transferring fat to the breasts is a common plastic surgical procedure that is safe. Breast augmentation fat transfer is effective to add a subtle increase in breast size, correct contour irregularities, improve cleavage and enhance the results achieved from breast augmentation with implants.