There is no yes, or no answer to your question. It depends on the individual persons need, and also very much the subjective view of the provider. Facial fat transfer is inherently, unpredictable, imprecise, and can be unforgiving if patients are unhappy with the outcome. Getting consistent quality outcomes and mastering the procedure has a long steep learning curve. By far the most important variable is provider selection. In the end, the single two most important variables are patients candidacy and provider selection. Each provider will take a different approach on how they use that transfer. The procedure is inherently different from working with fillers. Fillers unlike fat transfer are highly precise, very predictable and forgiving if the patient don’t like the outcome. Detailed, precise, volume restoration is better done with fillers. For example, treating nasal labial folds is far better done with fillers than fat transfer. Fat transfer on the other hand is better for giving diffuse overall volume. Rather than trying to figure out how the procedure should be done I suggest you focus your efforts on finding the best provider which in the end is going to be what makes the difference regarding getting quality outcome. Finding the right plastic surgeon is sometimes far more difficult than most people realize. Being bored, certified, and plastic surgery with years of experience, does not mean somebody’s mastered anyone single procedure, especially not difficult complex operations, like liposuction and fat transfer Which inherently have long learning curves. To find the best provider, I suggest patients schedule multiple in person, consultations with board-certified plastic surgeons in their community who seem to have a proven track record for facelift surgery. During each consultation, ask each provider to open up their portfolio and show you their entire collection of before, and after pictures of previous patients with similar facial characteristics to your own. An experience provider should have no difficulty showing you with the before and after pictures of at least 50 previous patients. Highly experienced providers should infect up hundreds or even thousands of before and after pictures to choose from. there’s no correct number of consultations needed to find the right provider. The more consultations you scheduled the more likely you are to find the better provider. I do not recommend patients have virtual consultations, and generally do not recommend traveling long distances, though for some people, this may be necessary in order to find the best provider. To make an assessment we always need to see quality pictures. Good luck, Matt Hagstrom, MD