Can my face be fixed after fat grafting 1 year ago? (Photos)

Question

Please help - a year ago, today. I had fat grafting to my face. I am very unhappy. My face looks masculine and my face is uneven on my left side I have a lump that is under my temple and my checks are sunk in on that side. Is there any way to fix this. What should my next steps be. Please help.

Tim Neavin, MD · Answer

Thank you for your photos.  By any chance that you have any radiofrequency done to your face?  That generally melts fat and I often see patients who look older after radiofrequency due to the effects of lipoatrophy.  Asymmetries can be improved with fat transfer.  Please make sure he see someone with experience or a board-certified plastic surgeon who specializes in fat transfer..

Leyla Arvas, MD · Answer

Hello, you have an asymmetry on your face. For this facial asymmetry, I recommend you to have dermal fillers first. You will see the effect of dermal fillers immediately due to their permanence of 12-18 months. If you are satisfied with the result, you can have the fat transfer done the way you want after a few years.

Mats Hagstrom, MD (license on probation) · Answer

Based on your pictures there are a few things I that leave me with questions.

Have you had any other procedures other than facial fat transfer?

In your after picture your head looks vertically elongated and your brow position is higher. Your lips are so essentially fuller and there is some discoloration on the left lower lip in the after picture.(looks like blanching from using vasoconstrictive drugs like amp and nephron during facial treatment)

Also the after picture appears to be taken from a closer distance creating more of a wide-angle affect.
You did have some hollowing of your cheeks more on the left then on the right in your before pictures. I’m guessing that adding fat over your cheekbones created at worst mismatch for this.  likewise there was hollowing in the temples before but adding volume to the cheekbone area makes the temples look more hollow.  ideally providers should step back and look at the forest instead of focusing on the tree but that isn’t always such an easy thing.

With fat transfer the Fed can survive differently depending on the availability of underlying host  tissue that the fattest grafted into.

This can make the outcomes are somewhat unpredictable and inherently different than the injection pattern because the final result is based not only on how much fat was injected in each area  but finally how much fat survives in each area.

It’s difficult to remove previously grafted fat and that is the primary reason I steer people away from facial fat transfer and instead recommend people stay with fillers.

Fat can be removed with Liposuction but liposuction cannot differentiate grafted fat versus native fat.

Most likely your facial contour can be balanced with additional work done by someone who is exceptionally good at what they do and clearly understands your concerns and wishes.

Finding the most talented providers is more difficult than people think.

The following is a list of general recommendations to help find the best provider and have an overall positive experience from cosmetic surgery.

1. I recommend patients avoid traveling long distances for elective surgical procedures. There are of course instances where there is a lack of local talent and traveling to some degree is inevitable. If traveling for the procedure patients should be ready to travel to have the consultation, post operative appointments and follow up should there be issues or complications.
Patients sometimes do not appreciate the importance of in person consultations, that complications do happen or the number of people who have issues with their results or need revisions.

2. Schedule multiple consultations with different providers in your area who seem to have a good reputation for the procedure you’re interested in. Starting with at least five consultations seems like a reasonable number to me.

3. Whenever possible schedule in person consultations.  
4. During in person consultations ask each plastic surgeon to show all of their before and after pictures for the procedure you’re interested in.

The goal is not to see the best results of their career but to get an idea of what average results look like and get some type of confirmation of how many of these procedures that provider has performed.

Ask to see results that were not as good as the doctor would’ve hoped for and talk about the differences in outcomes.

Honest and experienced providers should have no problems presenting this type of information.

A highly experienced plastic surgeon should have hundreds of before and after pictures for the procedure you’re interested in. At a minimum at least 20+.

5. Read all the reviews on various physician review websites paying close attention and avoiding providers with any significant number of justified negative reviews.  Providers with an abundance of reviews often have aggressive marketing campaigns.

The plastic surgeons I respect most all have the single variable of not having justified negative reviews on their online profiles. 
In my opinion justified negative reviews are far more telling than an abundance of positive reviews.

6. Avoid scheduling for surgery or making a deposit on the day of the consultation.  Give yourself some time to think about the decision and make sure you finished all scheduled consultations before committing to having surgery that will permanently and irreversibly change your body.

When in doubt slow down and schedule more consultations.

Choosing the right plastic surgeon is the single most important variable to having a positive experience.

7. Don’t go chasing after technology or names of certain equipment. Instead focus all your efforts on finding the most experienced and talented board-certified plastic surgeon.

Best,

Mats HagstromMD

Can my face be fixed after fat grafting 1 year ago? (Photos)

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Everything you need to know about Facial Fat Transfer

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Can my face be fixed after fat grafting 1 year ago? (Photos)

Answers (3)

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Recommended reading

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.