Cheek Implants with Dr. Niamtu - Midlothian, VA

I had a failed fat transfer to face and the doctor offered to redo it for free. I thought if the first one yielded nothing, odds are the second would do the same. While researching, I found Dr. Niumta on youtube. Emailed him with a fat transfer questionand he replied with cheek implants. Spent a while researching it and decided he's the one to do. Headed down from NYC Sunday morning and was there mid-day. I decided to drive and I'm glad I did.
The office is really on top of their game for pre-arrangement for out of town patients, from getting your meds ready, to making sure you have a care giver taking you home if you travel alone. Kathy Rose was my care giver and she outdid herself, and her fee is very reasonable.
She picked me up Monday morning from La Quinta which is 5 minutes away. Met the good doc, answered all my questions and on the OR. His helper Alyssa was plain awesome all the way.
By 11:15, Kathy was there to take me back to the hotel. Plenty of swelling and numbness. Didn't have to take pain meds, just few Tylenol took care of it.
Next morning, I went for follow-up and was released to drive back and was home by 4 pm.
While too early to tell, I'm comfortable with the decision I made.
Fat transfer is a hit or miss, perhaps more misses in my opinion.
In order to inject fat cells to add volume, live cells have to be broken up. If the fat cells don't survive, those live cells that were broken up will yield worse result. In my case, none of the fat cells survived and it seemed like I ended up with looser skin.
At 49, I'm not looking to look younger and I could live with a bit of loose skin under the neck and what not, but a bit of improvement in the middle face that'll make a 50 year look better doen't hurt.
Sa far so good.

Well, every day gets little better.
Upper lip is down to 50% numbness.
Nose still at 75%.
I keep comparing my post-op to this wonderful lady's thorough review and I seem to be at the same stage.

https://www.realself.com/review/midlothian-va-cheek-augmentation-27-y-o-finally-cheeks-filler-recessed-chin-dr

I've read somewhere that cheek implants may make dark under eyes worse.
Not the case with me. It seemed like they improved.
He used the XL size and I could feel the corners below the side of my eyes.
Taking the week off and doing light errands.
Received a post-op call from the office.
Eating is almost back to normal and sleeping is good.
Back to work on Monday.
Sorry for the lack of pictures. I'm terrible with selfies. lol..
Despite the swelling, looks better already compared to the sunken upper cheeks before.

So here's a before picture I dug up.
I think it was around 2 months post fat transfer.
It appears as if whatever was added hit a black diamond downhill slope to the bottom settling in around the mouth area making me look like Homer Simpson.
Only a fool would go for fat transfer # 2 or even # 3.
Besidess, it seems when fat transfer does hold up, the skin seems mushy.
In all fairness, I had done some research on FT and knew it may not work but nevertheless went ahead with it because I wasn't aware of cheek implants.
Dr. Niamtu slammed those cheek implants exactly where they should be.
As the swelling subsiding, I can feel and touch them more and they feel like bones.
That said, cheek implants is an invasive surgery and must be performed by a very experienced surgeon.
Anyway, at day 5 I seem to be at 50% recovery. Doing light activities and taking it easy until Monday.