Do you always joke about donating your excess fat? A patient’s own excess fat deposits can often be used for restoring fullness of the face. As we age, we lose volume in our face and it makes us look older and more gaunt in appearance. Youthful faces tend to have more volume. At her Portland, OR area practice, Dr. Elisa Burgess offers facial micro fat grafting procedures to restore volume in the face and depressions of the skin. There are multiple reasons people chose to undergo facial fat grafting, including:
- To enhance their appearance and facial fullness
- To better match their outward appearance with how they feel physically
- To restore original facial features and make them appear more rested
- To smooth deep smile lines and to add a youthful fullness to the cheek area
NANO FAT GRAFTING
Nano fat grafting, also known as microfat grafting, is a cosmetic procedure that involves transferring a small amount of fat from one part of your body to your face to improve skin quality, reduce wrinkles, and restore youthful contours. The fat is usually taken from areas of your body that have a little extra fat, such as the thighs, hips, or lower tummy, and processed to create a smooth, liquid concentration of small fat particles using a centrifuge. The processed fat is then injected into the targeted areas of your face using an ultra-fine cannula, which allows for precise and natural-looking results due to the small size of the needle and the smooth consistency of the fat.
SNIF (SHARP-NEEDLE INTRADERMAL FAT GRAFTING)
The SNIF method is a cosmetic procedure that is typically used to correct skin imperfections like wrinkles, acne scars, and atrophic scars that are close to the surface of the skin, but not to add volume to deeper areas. SNIF has many of the qualities of an ideal dermal filler but lasts longer. The technique involves injecting microfat and nanofat directly into small wrinkles around the mouth in a way similar to traditional fillers. This approach is particularly useful in reducing the appearance of vertical lines around the lips, also known as smoker's lines, which have historically been challenging to treat.
Many patients use popular cosmetic fillers to add fullness to specific areas of the face, but this does not produce a global youthful appearance. Facial fat grafting procedures, which utilize the patient’s own fat stores, are an effective way to contour the entire face and not just specific areas. Fat grafting in Portland can also be used to correct depressed scars, acne scars, hollow areas of skin, laugh lines, and facial creases. It is possible that a few sessions of fat grafting may be necessary to fulfill your goals.
Ideal recipients of fat grafting should be in good health and be able to weigh the benefits and risks associated with undergoing a surgical procedure. Fat grafting will not take well in smokers.
The fat grafting procedure is done on an outpatient basis and is usually performed under a local anesthetic. In the first stage of the fat grafting process, the surgeon will harvest fat cells from the patient’s abdomen, thighs, buttocks, or another location using liposuction. The liposuction fat is then prepared for the lipo-injection process. The prepared micro fat is injected into the desired site, and the small injection sites may be closed.
After the fat grafting procedure is completed, the patient may see some swelling, bruising or redness of both the donor and recipient sites, which will start to improve within a few days. The discomfort may be managed with medication. Dr. Burgess will encourage you to walk around after surgery. It is imperative to avoid any strenuous activity or heavy lifting for at least two weeks. Traveling long distances is not recommended in the first two weeks following surgery. Ensure that you attend all scheduled exams following surgery. Scars from the procedure will be noticeable at first but will improve over the next year. Results of the procedure are not permanent as gravity and aging continue to play a role. After the treatment, the body may absorb some of the injected fat, but it is not possible to predict how much. Therefore, it is possible that you may need more than one treatment.