Overfilling with Fat Injections

Do most doctors put in more fat than needed when doing fat injections? It seems like since a lot of the fat might not survive, you'd have to put in too much hoping it would go down eventually. I'm just wondering if this is a standard practice because it's the only thing that would explain some of the super overfilled faces I've seen on sites like this.

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8 Doctor Answers | Asked by anon

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Fat grafting (lipoinjection)

Yes, there is an inherent unpredictable aspect ot fat grafting that is related to difficult with predicting fat survival with transfer. If I can provide a sample analogy. IF you want to start a plant from seeds, they typically ask you to place 2-3 seeds in a hole, because not all the seeds will germinate. The same goes for fat cells,

Otto Joseph Placik, MD

32 reviews

Chicago Plastic Surgeon

Overfilling with fat injections

I don't do much fat injecting anymore but those who do typically overfill knowing that a certain amount of the fat will be resorbed. The problem is that you don't know how much will survive or not and there are reports of the rare patient in whom all the fat "took" after being overfilled. Personally I find the temporary injectable fillers to be much more predictable because you don't need to guess and overfill and you don't need a surgical procedure to harvest he fat.... more

Fat Grafting - Too much of a good thing

As with any cosmetic surgical procedure, there can certainly be 'too much of a good thing'. Over-grafting of fatty tissue will distort facial features and produce unnatural proportions that look like surgery rather than appearing to turn back the clock. An important part of my preoperative evaluation is reviewing photographs with patients from their twenties and thirties (and from their forties for patients in their sixties and seventies). Such photographs are invaluable in... more

Michael Law, MD

17 reviews

Raleigh-Durham Plastic Surgeon

michaellawmd.com

We overcorrect fat injections by about 15%.

Hi! This is an art more than a science, and individual technique matters a lot. But in general, with excellent technique, 85% of fat injections may survive. So one should not overcorrect by more than 15%.

Fat transfer overfilling may require removal of excess

With the new techniques in liposuction for fat transfer, the preperation of the fat and centrifuging fat, the risks of large amount of fat not taking is very small. Most of the fat will stay. Overdoing the fat transfer: if all the fat takes then you need to remove the excess. Doing the best technique and giving the fat chance for a good take is a much better approach.

Fat Grafting Results

In short, yes. Surgeons do tend to place more fat than is needed in the area. This is because as the others explained to you, not all the fat takes and there is often a need to perform 1-2 more injections to get complete correction of the area of interest. This is because the fat take is unpredictable and we dont know how much of it will survive, but we do know not all of it will, no matter how much of an expert one things he or she is. So there is a tendency to overfill with the fat... more

DO NOT OVERFILL WITH FAT GRAFTING

Obviously, every doctor is different but if the fat does not resorb then you have a problem. i personally get consistently excellent fat take. i also see that the real problem is that most doctors do not understand the long-term nature of fat transfer, i.e., after 3 months the fat cells shrink and after 6 months they start to grow and blend up until 2 years later. those who are putting fat in early again for a touch up at 3 months can have overfilled faces by 2 years. i only do fat... more

Many plastic surgeons prefer fillers instead of fat

I like Dr. Placik's analogy. It is quite true. Despite our best technique at fat harvesting and grafting fat, we are in effect planting a lot of space occupying duds who will not provide long term fullness. Fat cells can be killed by the vacuum of suctioning when we get the fat. They can be destroyed when the fat is washed and processed to separate good fat from obviously dead fat. It can be destroyed by the pressure of the syringe implanting the fat in its new location and finally, if... more