I was originally interested in Blepharoplasty, but my surgeon said I didn't have excess skin, and what I really needed was more volume, so I opted for fat transfer instead. I had a mini-face lift, brow lift, and under eye fat transfer. I am now 2 weeks post op and have a ridge of puffiness under both eyes just above my cheekbone. They give me the appearance of bags under my eyes. I understand that 2 weeks is early, but I guess what I'd like to know is: are there more people who experience problems with this procedure compared to those who have a successful outcome? Is it normal to have puffiness or swelling. It has become softer in the past week, but I can still hardly stand to look at it. It's all I see, and the success of the brow lift and face lift are overshadowed by those bags.
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January 13, 2009
Answer: You are still early after fat transfer surgery
The skin color pigmentation changes that you describe can come from the trauma of the fat injections. This may be permanent. Sometimes bleaching creams or lasers can help with pigmentary problems.
With proper fat harvest and grafting techniques, fat injection to the mid-face and cheeks can result in volumization that can last for years. Regions of the face with motion (lips, nasal-labial folds etc) tend to not hold on to fat as long as the mid-face and cheek regions of the face. These...
There is no easy answer here.
It is possible that your fat grafts will persist and remain firm.
However, it appears that your cheeks and body rim remain untreated with relative lack of projection as discussed by Dr. Moelleken and termed the "negative vector" look.
For the most...