FACIAL FAT TRANSFER: PASADENA/LOS ANGELES AND FRESNO/VISALIA
Notice the fat loss in my "mature" 55 year old face compared to my 12 year old daughter's face, which is full and round. This fat loss gradually contributes to sagging and aging. In many cases, we can produce excellent improvement often when combining fat transfer with other facial cosmetic surgery techniques in our Pasadena/Los Angeles or Fresno area cosmetic surgery office.
Facial fat transfer has evolved into an excellent improvement technique to help saggy aging faces restore some of the lost volume. Over about the last 10 years, two famous physicians have developed their techniques and have taught the rest of the cosmetic surgery community their methods.
Dr. Sydney Coleman of New York City has performed many cases using his fat transfer method, which involves putting the fat on multiple different levels and doing tiny amounts of fat with each insertion of the blunt needle that he uses. He particularly likes to put the fat right on the skin of the bone or “periosteum” and also in the layers of the superficial fat on the face. A good deal of swelling, tissue reaction and bruising occur with this technique because so many strokes of the insertion device are necessary and so much tissue disruption occurs. Dr. Coleman’s spins his fat to produce a denser part of the original harvested fat for insertion into the face. Up to 100 cc or a cup of fat is used on the whole face. The faces typically are distorted for up to several months before the final result is seen.
Dr. Amar uses larger quantities of fat in each insertion, and typically his trainees produce less swelling and a quicker return to work. He also uses large quantities of fat and often touch-ups for both of these procedures are necessary at 6 months to 1 year. The general rule of thumb is that the fat that is present at 4 to 6 months is relatively permanent and has been taken up by the body in a way such that the body can support it and retain it. He attempts to place the fat into the muscles of the face, and his technique is called “FAMI” or “Facial Autologous Mesenchymal injection.”
Dr. Yoho’s experience with these techniques is extensive. Generally, his patients are not willing to put up with months of downtime, so he recommends doing fat transplant to the face in stages, using moderate quantities into the muscles. A week or two off is about all that his patients usually tolerate. For this technique, spinning is not necessary and he inserts the fat into both the muscle and the superficial fatty layers and the periosteal areas of the upper and mid face to produce the lift. Often, this is done in conjunction with skin resurfacing procedure and/or conservative facelift procedure. These procedures in combination, each of which is relatively noninvasive and has a relatively reasonable recovery profile, is a modern way to improve faces without all of the downtime and all of the unnatural looks that large procedures with invasive techniques entail.
Dr. Yoho always notes to his patients that for facial fat transplant, if a lot of weight is gained, the weight can definitely go on the face and this is important if you have gained and lost weight over your lifetime.
