My face lost volume - Should i get fat grafting? (photos)

Loss of volume can be compensated with volume augmentation; fat grafts or fillers may be used for periorbital area which includes cheeks, lateral orbital and brow areas. In person consultation with a board certified plastic surgeon familiar with facial fat grafting, is recommended. There is a good group of plastic surgeons with long experience with fat grafting precticing in Ghent! Good luck.

fat has many advantages and is a great option in cases like your. As we age our face loses volume. fat is natural, long lasting, and is readily available making full correction always possible.

Thank you for submitting your question and photos. You appear to be a candidate for a facial fat transfer to restore lost volume and rejuvenate your appearance. Fat is harvested from the abdomen or thighs and meticulously injected into the midface to create a more supple and youthful appearance that harmonizes your facial features.

I recommend scheduling an in-person consultation with an experienced, board-certified facial plastic surgeon. They will be able to assess your concerns and determine the best treatment option to help you achieve your aesthetic goals.

This is my expertise and a huge portion of my practice. Asymmetry is normal and expected. Buccal fat pad gives slimming not symmetry. Masseter botox will make you slimmer and make the jawline more loose. Fillers help give shaping and contouring. If you want perfect or close to perfect symmetry you need maxillofacial surgery or implants customized. I suggest seeing an expert to go through all options. Most of my younger clients use fillers to give them shaping especially on the cheeks, jawline, and chin which make the face look more slim and tight; and threads such as PDO or Instalift can build collagen and support the facial shaping and skin looseness over time, slowing down the aging process and given the face a more “snatched” look; and morpheus8 or PiXel8 deep microneedling RF can tighten crepe skin especially on the neck and jawline and is great for long term tightening of the full face, neck and chest; its often used to give the face a slimmer more sculpted look because it tightens the skin and gives lift. an early face lift can be performed as well even in younger clients if they want a different facial shape, maxillofacial surgery with bone breaking or shaving can also be done. For facial slimming a combination of treatments are always needed. Options include: 1. Buccal fat pad removal to reduce fat on the lower face 2. Factite or Renuvion/J Plasma to tighten the lower face, jawline, and chin to reduce fat and give the jawline and neck tightening and shaping. 3. Botox to the masseter to reduce the muscular size of the jaw giving the face an illusion of being more slender 4. Fillers to the jawline, chin, cheeks, temples and brow help to shape the face and make it more angled and defined Always use at home derma rolling (see link to Emerageskin x anteageMD roller plus stem cells/hyaluronic acid ampules) and peels like emeragecosmetics enlighten or aerify that can be used to improve skin quality and tighten the skin while improving wrinkles, pigmentation, acne, and Melasma. See an expert who does facial shaping with surgical and non surgical methods to get a comprehensive option. Best, Dr. Emer.

Hello !
Based on your pictures, it looks like you could benefit from facial fat transfer. With the correct technique, it would harmonize your lower face and offer you profound rejuvenation.

It is best to consult with a skilled facial plastic surgeon.

I hope this helps,
best of luck !

Fat grafting is an excellent procedure to correct facial volume .
Do you have excess fat that can be used for grafting?

Facial fat grafting is tricky business. The procedure is inherently, unpredictable, emphasize, and potentially unforgiving.
If more fat survives than anticipated, it can be very difficult, and at times not possible to remove grafted fat or reverse the procedure.. A substantial percentage of the population will gain weight with age, especially with hormonal changes like menopause.
The only advantage fat has is permanencegrafting fat, is inferior to the use of fillers by every measure, with the exception of the lack of longevity of the fillers. I highly recommend you start by working with fillers and get it very clear idea if you like facial volume augmentation, and you find a provider who is the results and placement of volume are ideal before committing to having a permanent solution. Fat is unpredictable because it will survive not only based on how it is injected, but is highly dependent on the amount of post tissue available to support the fat. Because the thickness of soft tissue layers, very dramatically in different parts of the face. This can significantly influence where fat survives after grafting, and where it does not.
If you do opt for having fat grafting, then I suggest being extremely selective about finding the most experienced provider. When interviewing plastic surgeons you need to make absolutely sure you’ll have a clear understanding of the timeframe of when after pictures were taken in relationship to the procedure. Early fat transfer results can look extremely impressive but these do not represent final results by any stretch. After pictures should be taken a minimum of three months after the procedure but preferably six months or longer.
Defined the best provider I suggest having multiple in person consultations. Ask providers to show as many before, and after pictures as possible of previous patients who have similar body characteristics to your own. Ask specifically to have the provider show you a variety of outcomes and make sure the after pictures were taken a minimum of three months, but preferably six months or greater from the time of the procedure. As providers to show you examples of excellent outcomes, average outcomes, and outcomes that did not turn out, as well as they had hoped. Talk to the providers specifically about the number of patients who are unhappy with the outcomes and what each providers. Ask providers what their revision rate and revision policy is. Ask how many patients come back for a second round of fat transfer? For this procedure it’s probably better to be a little conservative and plan on coming back for a touchup procedure rather than trying to get it all done in a single operation. If too much, fat survives, and you’re unhappy with the outcome, it can be very difficult to correct the situation. This would also put you at risk for the outcome, looking potentially much worse if you were to gain weight in the future.
Fillers are not dependent on the process of tissue grafting, which makes them ideal for a facial volume augmentation. I generally always recommend patients they with fillers and definitely work with fillers before committing to a more permanent solution.
I if you are up for facial fat transfer, then you need to accept the reality that once the fat is grafted, it may be very difficult to remove it if you don’t like the outcome, and this includes firm, lumpy fat necrosis.
The learning curve to do this procedure well on a consistent basis with predictable results is long and steep. If you opt to move forward, then you should be far more selective regarding provider choice then you may think it’s necessary. I recommend patient start by having at least five in person, consultations, and consider having more unless you feel very comfortable That the best provider. An experienced provider should have no difficulty showing you at least 50 sets of before, and after pictures of the procedures they do on a regular basis.
In reality, somebody who specializes in a certain procedure, and does it regularly should, in fact have hundreds or even thousands of sets of before, and after pictures. Being shown a handful of preselected images representing the best results other providers career is completely insufficient to get a clear understanding of an average results, look like in the hands of each provider. There are certainly very talented plastic surgeons who do this procedure well and when done well I’m patient to work good candidates. The results can be impressive and long lasting.
It is, however, a procedure that comes with significant risk of patients having an outcome that’s quite different than what they had anticipated, and like I mentioned earlier, correcting previous facial fat grafting can be challenging and at times not possible.
Patients should be more selective, and they think necessary when it comes to choosing the right provider. This is not a good procedure to rush into after having a single consultation.
I personally I generally recommended patient stay with fillers, because they are superior in almost every measure.
To get an idea of what quality work looks like using fillers, consider checking out some of the before and after pictures on the website of Dr. David Mabrie’s in San Francisco. He has a facial plastic surgeon. This practice is devoted exclusively to only working with fillers.
In my opinion, his work represents the gold standard of what can be done without surgical intervention.
Best,
Mats Hagstrom, MD