Fat Transfer: Stories

I had fat grafts taken from my thighs and injected into my cheeks in 1999. This is before a lot of today’s fillers but besides, I wanted longer results. The naturalness of this appealed to me too: not injecting poison and instead taking something from my body and putting it back. The first time I had it done in February 1999 the results didn’t take. I would say I had some depth to my face until May, when I called a different surgeon and inquired about a fixer-upper. He used a different technique and took more fat out in the first place and then put more back in too. He placed it differently too. I wasn’t happy for the first week - I thought it was too much - but the end result was that I had fuller cheeks for maybe three and a half to four years. This was what I always wanted. Since then I’ve gotten cheek implants. I needed permanent results. There was nothing wrong with the fat injections (the ones that worked) but four years or four months, it will always be temporary. My second PS talked about building up the area and making it last but this still required maintenance. Once I had the successful fat grafts I knew this was the look I wanted so I took photos to my PS and we worked out a plan to make it permanent with implants. The flexibility of choosing the right implant is better than the fat grafts but they both have their purpose.