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In fat transfer, your fat cells are liposuctioned and then carefully injected under your skin or into a muscle such as your lips. In dermal graft, the deeper aspect of your skin, known as dermis, is use for transfer and augmentation. Dermal grafting is usually used for lips and the majority of it will dissipate within 6 to 12 months.
Fat injections, fat transfer, fat graft are the same. Dermal fat grafts normally are meant to imply that a piece of the dermis is transferred from somewhere else and placed into position. As a bulky tissue, there is a greater risk of necrosis, or death, of the tissue.
A fat graft is the INJECTION of small threads of liquid fat to bring about a volumetric change. A Dermis-Fat graft is a segment of skin, from which the external layer was removed which is PLACED AS A SHEET (flat or rolled up) under a sunken area to bring about a similar increase in missing volume or provide stability or strength to a deficient area.
Whenever fat grafting is performed, the area that receives the fat will be swollen and will have many fat cells in it for the first couple of weeks that will probably not survive. In most cases, the swelling and fat cells which didn't survive will be totally gone by about 2-3 months....
It is still too early to be concerned about a lump in your lip after fat grafting. It could still be swollen for several more weeks. You could also have a small hematoma or collection of blood under the lip skin. I usually recommend light massage of the lips to soften a lump...
The survival of grafted fat is variable from procedure to procedure. As it is essentially impossible to quantify the survival of grafted fat as a percentage of the total amount of fat that was transferred, I instead tend to look at it in terms of what percentage of the overall improvement...