Can I Use my Own Fat to Fill my Tear Troughs?

You can use your own fat, but this often times is not the smoothest appearance. Thank you for your question and good luck with everything.

While autologous fat can certainly be used for filling the delicate tear trough area, I would be reluctant to use it. For one thing, retrieving the fat for use in this way is a two procedure method. Fat must be withdrawn under local anesthesia from an an area, such as the thigh, abdomen or buttocks (procedure #1), processed, and then reinjected into the tear troughs (procedure #2).

Since the true  longevity of transplanted fat grafts is still a subject of some dispute, and since often fillers placed in the tear trough area--where there is relatively little movement that can contribute to mechanical breakdown-- fillers injected into that region often maintain correction for well over a year, if not several years. (Anectdotally,  I treated my own tear troughs six years ago as a birthday gift to myself and still do not need any re-treatment).

 I have more than twenty years of experience in treating tear troughs with all kinds of materials, including Zyderm and Evolence.  Because hyaluronic acid fillers, such as Juvederm Ultra XC, can be injected smoothly into this region in microdroplets,  and may be quickly, easily, and completely dissolved afterward with an enzyme, hyaluronidase if so desired, I prefer this to far less forgiving materials, such as fat or permanent fillers, like Artefill. 

Can you use your own fat to fill your tear troughs? Yes.  Without more information or pictures however, I cannot tell you if that's what you need.  I often prefer using a soft tissue filler such as Restylane or Juvederm as the results are more predictable (fat is one of the first "fillers" that surgeons tried- dating back to the turn of the previous century, and we still have not perfected it).  Plus, if you don't like the results, the Restylane or Juvederm will dissolve, whereas fat may not.  If my patients are happy with the filler results, and they want something more permanent, I'll reach for a cheek implant specifically made for that area.  The results are natural, outstanding, long-lasting, and can be removed if ever you don't want it there.  Regarding the loose skin- that also depends on how loose, and what the underlying muscle/fat/skeletal anatomy is like- most often a blepharoplasty is needed, someties just a simple chemical/laser peel will do, or just restoring the volume with filler or implant is enough to reduce the skin laxity.