Question:
I’m a 56-year-old woman and I’ve been having dermal fillers injected for the past nine years. I’m starting to get really tired of the process, and I’m looking for a more permanent solution. I’m interested in a fat transfer to the face, but I’m concerned about results as well as longevity. Does fat grafted to the face produce facial rejuvenation that compares favorably to the results offered by dermal fillers?
Answer
There has been a lot of discussion in recent years about facial fat grafting. The reason for this is that there is abundant amounts of fat to transfer, the procedure is relatively safe, minimal recovery in terms of discomfort is experienced, and in the hands of an experienced injector, the results of autologous fat injections to the face are quite impressive. The better the harvesting and injecting techniques become for autologous facial fat grafting, the better the results will be and the longer lasting and more predictable the fat graft survival will also be.
Needless to say, I am a big fan of autologous fat grafting and have performed many fat injections to many happy patients. The cost of dermal filler over time is exponentially more than having the fat grafting procedure even with occasional touch ups. The results are also equivalent and possibly better because of the abundance of available fat and the cost of significant amounts of dermal filler for facial augmentation.
Posted by Dr. Philip Schoenfeld