Age 31, how will donor site fat respond to hormonal changes over the years?

Question

Facial fat transfer in a young person (31): I'm a 31 year old female. I got unilateral buccal fat removal and too much fat was taken out. What are my donor site options for fat transfer and is there a donor site for fat that typically responds better in terms of fat distribution when a woman goes through hormonal changes? Is it best to wait for fat transfer when I'm older? My concern is that the fat from the donor site will grow significantly on my face as my body ages. I was interested in getting fat back to buccal area.

Tim Neavin, MD · Answer

This is a good question.  Assuming there are not any significant weight changes such as gaining more than 10% of your body weight, I would not expect any significant facial changes related to fat transfer.  It is quite easy to restore fat in the buccal space through fat transfer and in fact this is an area that does not very well.  Sure to go to someone with a lot of experience so the area is corrected properly.

Mats Hagstrom, MD (license on probation) · Answer

Any plastic surgeon who is skilled at Liposuction and fat transfer should have no difficulty easily harvesting fat for unilateral cheek fat transfer without consequence.

The fat changing because of menopause in the future should probably be pretty far down on the list of worries.

The buccle fat pad is a deep and a single solid piece of fat.  Fat transfer is usually done defusely and in the superficial plane some Grafted fat will not exactly look the same as replacing buccal fat.

Delivering consistent high quality liposuction and fat transfer results is more difficult than most people think. Compensating for the removal of buckle fat is not the easiest and having fat transfer will not look the same as still having the buccal fat pad.

I suggest you focus all your efforts on finding the most experienced and talented provider because that in the end that is the thing that really matters.

Find the most talented and experience provider by having multiple in person consultations at a which time you should ask each provider to show their entire collection of before and after pictures of facial fat transfer work including average outcomes, above average outcomes and less than outcomes.

The goal is to see what average results look like and how many of these procedures they have performed.

Someone who is truly talented and experienced should have no difficulty showing you 50 or more sets of quality before and after pictures.  You should also confirm that the after pictures were all taken a minimum of three months for the date of surgery. Early postoperative pictures after fat transfer can look very impressive but did not at all represent final outcomes.

I also recommend reading all the reviews on all the various physician review websites and avoiding providers for the new significant number of justified negative reviews.

If in the end you are unhappy with the result it will be because of the surgeon you went to not because your body went through menopause.

Best,

Mats Hagstrom MD

Robert T. Buchanan, MD (retired) · Answer

Your concern is one of the reasons I do not do Buccal fat removal. There is a reason that fat is there. Removing it almost always leads to a worse deformity either immediately or later. Replacing it is difficult because what was removed was an encapsulated fat pad and there is no way to exactly mimic it. It can be done, however, with several fat transfers placed more superficial than the original fat pad. This is necessary in order to have the transferred fat vascularized and survive. It also allows tailoring the result to the most pleasing look. You do not need to worry about the donor site as essentially all fat reacts equally. I used to try to use fat from the neck if available, but found fat from the abdomen was easier and acted the same over time. Make sure you see a plastic surgeon with significant experience in fat grafting.

Age 31, how will donor site fat respond to hormonal changes over the years?

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Age 31, how will donor site fat respond to hormonal changes over the years?

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Everything you need to know about Facial Fat Transfer

Our mission is to create a world where every investment in modern beauty is Worth It.