Blog

Think about the beautiful and youthful faces that surround you, whether in your own life, on TV or in magazines.

Chances are you are attracted to striking features such as large captivating eyes, full lips and stunning cheek bones. In addition to proportional features, youthful faces have smooth, even and gracefully contoured skin.

Fat injections are used to restore the layer of padding, or facial volume, that is diminished through aging.

By replacing this supportive layer, using fat from your own body, wrinkles, lines and hollows will simply disappear, allowing your natural features to shine through.

What are Fat Injections?

Fat injections have been used to treat lost facial volume for more than 100 years. However, only in recent years has medical technology and artistic techniques yielded long-lasting and natural results.

This process uses harvested fat cells from one area of the body and relocates them to another.

Because the procedure uses donated fat from the same individual, you may also see it referred to as autologous fat grafting.

In order to be effective, fat grafting must be performed by a plastic surgeon who is experienced at executing precise and artistic injection techniques to ensure transplanted fat cells are incorporated into the body’s vascular system. This ensures transplanted fat cells have their own blood supply and are integrated with surrounding tissues.

Many patients enjoy long-term benefits without the need for continuous touch-ups.

Autologous fat grafting works well to:

• Remove dark hollows underneath the eyes.
• Fill in lines, wrinkles and creases that appear around the eyes and along the forehead.
• Provide lift and volume to the upper-cheeks and face.
• Eliminate or significantly diminish lines and creases around the lips, nose and cheeks.
• Sculpt a more defined jaw line.
• Increase lip volume for a fresh, youthful and sensual look.

It is recommended that patients add fat injections to upper and lower blepharoplasty, face lift, or other cosmetic procedures.

Fat transfer prevents patients from having the stretched, tight, or angular effects that contribute to the stereotypical “plastic” look.

Only the most innovative and talented plastic surgeons have the finesse to execute fat injections in a way that looks completely organic.

What is the Surgical Procedure for Fat Injections?

If fat injections are the sole cosmetic procedure being performed, mild or twilight sedation will be used. If the procedure is being used to augment additional cosmetic surgical procedures, patients are fully sedated.

First, the doctor will harvest available fat from a discrete donor site–often the abdomen, hips and/or thighs. The doctor will make small incisions to extract the fat cells and remove fat from multiple locations so the remaining fat is distributed evenly.

Manual harvesting and injection of the fat ensures that it remains healthy and viable.  Once the donor fat has been carefully extracted, it is immediately cleaned and spun at high speeds to separate the fat layers.

This fat will be injected at precise locations that are marked beforehand. The doctor uses a small, blunt cannula rather than a needle to protect surrounding nerve and vein tissue. A series of precise and strategically executed injections are used to transfer the fat cells. Steri-strips are placed over the injections sites to protect them for the first 24-hours.

While the results will be immediate, your facial features will shift slightly as the new cells continue to be nourished by the blood supply and the surrounding skin and connective tissues continue to heal.

Any remaining transfer-quality fat will be carefully labeled and stored for up to one year so you can use it in the future for touch-ups or to augment future cosmetic surgery procedures.

Am I a Good Candidate for Fat Injections?

Virtually anyone over the age of 18 who has noticed lines, wrinkles or sagging as the result of lost skin volume is a candidate for fat grafting.

If you are making an appointment for a facelift, neck lift, or other cosmetic surgical procedures, you are also a candidate for fat transfer. It is important that candidates are in good health and have realistic expectations about the outcome.

When you schedule a consultation with a cosmetic surgeon, he will be able to assist you in determining which cosmetic procedures will be the best to address your areas of concern.

Your body will respond remarkably well to fat transfer because they use material from your own tissues. You will fall in love with your new and rejuvenated look.

To schedule a free consultation with Dr. Tzikas and find out if your a candidate for this rejuvenating procedure, call us at 561.330.9500 or click below to complete our contact form online.  We look forward to hearing from you!

Schedule a Consultation