Facial fat transfer plastic surgery, is it worth your money to plump your face with natural fat, perhaps not a good investment …

Fat injections are where your plastic surgeon can take fat from other places on your body and resuse it to restore natural looking volume to the face. Facial Fat Transfer looks really great yet does not last permanently in my opinion. Conclusion: I think fat injections are somewhat of Plastic Surgery Money Pit (unless you’re rich and famous and have a lot of free time and tons of money to spend on yourself)!

Facial fat transfer (also called facial fat grafting, or autologous fat transfer) is a trendy minimally invasive plastic surgery procedure these days. In the photo shown you can see a photo gallery of examples of before and after facial fat transfer photographs. Fat graphting can be used as a single procedure to treat the entire face or it can be targeted to specific areas. For example, fat transfer to a woman’s face can be used to round out sallow checks, fill in nasal lines around the mouth and nose, or to plump up thin lips. In some sense it is an exciting procedure because it can be used to eliminate the sunken drawn appearance that older women get stuck with. The beauty of the procedure is in it’s ability to add volume back into the face and plump it up. A plumped up face generally appears more youthful than a thin skeleton-like one. It helps transforms a woman’s look from grim and angry to plump and happy. In fact, sometimes it is the x-ray thin women who wind up needing this procedure the most.

How is the Facial Fat Grafting procedure done?

The facial fat transfer procedure involves harvesting fat from a fatter area of the body like the hips, thighs or buttocks of the women. The fat is suctioned out with a syringe. The suctioning is minimally invasive and may involved perhaps one or two small dissolvable stitches or so where the fat is taken from. Then using a small cannula the fat is injected into the face. Sometimes it is injected into the check area and also it can be injected into the lips. I’ve even heard of it being transferred from one area of the buttocks to another (so called buttocks reshaping)!

If facial fat transfer really worth your money? How would your plastic surgeon talk you into being a lipo to the face fat transfer patient? Let’s look at before and after pictures and see what the hype is about. Fat injections look good yet often don’t last!

Facial fat rejuvenation injects your own fat into your face to restore volume but beware as most of it will get absorbed and not last, plus it's $$$. Is your own fat a more natural beauty?

You can get a facial fat transfer procedure done as an outpatient. If this was the only procedure you were getting, you would only require a local anesthetic or perhaps IV sedation, with no dressings or drains needed. It all sounds so easy, yet I really don’t think that paying for this procedure alone is worth your time and money. Twilight (IV) sedation, even though its not general anesthesia, is still pretty serious no matter how you characterize it. First of all, it really is not all that easy because having a bunch of injections of alien fat into your face is going to cause some bruising where injected, and a lot of swelling. You are going to be swollen and yellowed after you get this done, for at least a week. Therefore, it is not a walk in, walk out undertaking. You’ll be puffy.

The results of facial fat transfer are really pretty amazing. There is no doubt that this volumizing procedure is going to look amazing on you after the swelling and brusing subsides. So, yes, volumizing with fat definitely works. BUT, it only works short term. That stuff just absorbs right back into your body after a while. Within a year, you’ll be almost back to where you were. I’ve read studies that a small amount of the volumizing could stick around long term. Personally I wouldn’t count on it.

I liken facial fat transfer to collagen in that it’s a temporary procedure that would have to be repeated. Ergo: total Money Pit. And it’s really worse than collagen because the fat transfer procedure is more involved, bruises you up and even might require sedation. I categorize this procedure was very effective yet not permanent. You would have to be a very rich woman to afford this type of procedure. If you had unlimited resources you could get this done every 3-5 years and keep a plush face, but who in the world could afford that? I like what the facial fat transfer does yet it’s not worth it at all if you are on a budget.

If facial fat transfer worth it your money? How would your plastic surgeon talk you into being a lipo to face fat transfer patient?

I’ve read that fat transfer can be long lasting if not permanent but I personally and unscientifically disagree. The fat eventually just gets absorbed and the vast amount of it will be long gone in a few years. They say the same thing about collagen and botox lasting for so long when we all know in a few months it’s absorbed then vanished. Most of these injectables just don’t stay put for life. Silicon is the only cosmetic injectable I know of that causes a permanent change but silicon injections have a really bad reputation as there is a propensity to get nodules and irregular bumps. In general the injectables last a few years but not a life-time. When they say long-lasting just remember that does not mean permanent-lasting.

Because fat transfer does not offer a permanent lifelong change, many women don’t do it. You could be paying a few thousand dollars for something that doesn’t last. Plus, the whole concept of moving fat from you rear to your face is rather gross. The main way that plastic surgeons can sell you this procedure is if you are getting something else done at the very same time. Let’s say you are getting liposuction done on your thunder thighs. You’ve already set up the surgery and gotten your time off work and responsibilities. The plastic surgeon might notice your face is gaunt, or maybe you even mentioned something to him.

So the plastic surgeon suggests hey well since we are doing the liposuction I could inject some of the fat into your face and give you some volume back in your checks and we could put some in your lips too. He might say, I will only charge you another $500 for it since we are already doing the lipo. Now, this gives you pause for thought.

If you are already getting a procedure done and get a facial fat transfer into your cheeks and lips done for a mere fraction of what it normally costs, then you might want to consider it! I think your plastic surgeon is offering you a good deal in fact. He makes a little extra bonus money and more than likely he thinks it would look great on you and knows, just knows, that you will love the results. Since you’re not paying a lot, and the result will look nice, and you’re out of work anyways for a week so the facial bruising and swelling won’t matter, it makes sense. Plus, the surgeon knows the vast majority of the fat will absorb into your body and dissipate over the next year or two, yet you won’t get upset about the volume vanishing because it was just a freebie, well almost.

My conclusion is that facial fat transfer adds volume to your face and will look good yet the volume won’t stay – it will be gone in a year or two most likely. Thus, to pay for this procedure alone is a total waste of your digital cash ladies in my opinion. If on the other hand you are getting something else done (and going under anesthesia anyways) and the cosmetic surgeon throws the fat transfer in at a bargain basement price, it would be something to consider. You’ll get a plump face for a year, give or take.

If you are looking for permanent volume in your face you would have to consider something like cheek or lip implants. Those can be permanent solutions yet they are frought with their own issues, complications and considerations, which will be covered in detail in a separate post. I should also say that there are some other fillers on the market like restylyne and juvederm and collagen that can add facial volume and are commonly used on the lips and nasiolabel folds (the lines coming down from the nose and around the mouth). Those also add volume on a temporary basis and while synthetic (since they aren’t your own fat) they don’t require getting fat via thigh lipsuction or buttocks lipo.

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