How Much Fat Needs to Be Extracted to Fill Cheeks and Wrinkes on Face?

     I have done fat transfers on women with less than 10% body fat, and this does not pose a challenge at all.  Volumes range from about 10 cc to 60 cc in most cases.  Find a plastic surgeon with ELITE credentials who performs hundreds of fat grafting procedures each year.  Then look at the plastic surgeon's website before and after photo galleries to get a sense of who can deliver the results.  Kenneth Hughes, MD Los Angeles, CA

Fat transfer is used to replace volume in certain areas of the face.  The cheeks are a great site for fat transfer because by replacing fat to this area a more youthful appearance can be restored.  Fat can serve to fill in the depressions and “valley’s” in the face, for instance, underneath the eyes.  It does not helpful with the fine lines of the forehead however.  The amount of fat needed depends on the amount of areas to be transferred to the face.  If you are a very thin person multiple sites may be needed from where the fat is to be extracted.

The answer depends on how hollow the face is.  It can range from a few cc to over 50 cc.  Almost everybody has enough fat for the procedure unless very thin person. In those cases, synthetic fillers are another option.

Your question regarding how much fat is needed to fill the cheeks and forehead lines is tricky.  First, everyone requires a different quantity depending on how deflated they are. Further, every surgeon harvests the fat differently so their yield of fat survival is different. Hence, how much they need to inject is going to vary.  More importantly, facial fat transfer is a very difficult procedure to perform and considering it is permanent, you will want to make sure your surgeon is experienced (performing several cases per week) and that they get excellent results consistently (see lots of before and after photos).  In our practice, it is rare to only inject the cheeks.  This can leave you looking imbalanced, so be aware of this.  Typically, a full face fat transfer is a better option in order to re-fill all the different parts of the face.  Finally, the lines along the forehead are usually treated with botox not fat transfer. 

Dear Michele Andover,


It takes as much as it needs to get the results you are looking for

Typically, I transfer anywhere from 30-60cc (1-2 ounces) of purified fat to a face


Best regards,

Nima Shemirani