One of the most visible signs of aging is the condition of your skin. You begin to experience wrinkles, age spots, and other pigmentation changes caused by exposure to sunlight. Your skin becomes thinner and sometimes pores become larger during the aging process. The collagen and elastic fibers beneath your skin’s surface change, as well. The hyaluronic acid in your skin reduces as you age, often leaving your skin feeling rougher and drier. Changes in skin tone occur, as well as changes in fat distribution, which lead to the altering of facial contours.
Facial fat is actually what creates a youthful appearance in your face. Children have a roundness to the face that is attributed to baby fat, and it remains there until your late twenties. After that time, facial fat diminishes, especially in the following areas:
- Around the eyes (sunken appearance)
- The lips (general thinning)
- Around the cheeks
- Around the jawline
- Deepened smile and laugh lines, also known as nasolabial folds
What Is a Fat Transfer?
Many people aren’t aware of fat transfer treatments, also known as autologous fat injections, which restore lost volume to one area by transferring fat from another area. Usually, fat is harvested from the stomach, thighs, or buttocks and transferred to the area around the eyes of somewhere else on the face. Fat transfers are also beneficial for hand rejuvenation.
If you’re interested in learning more about fat transfers, consider the following five facts.
1. Fat Transfers Can Be Combined With Liposuction
Fat is conveniently removed from one area of your body via liposuction before it’s placed in the other area. This presents an opportunity for removing stubborn fat from your body during the fat transfer treatment.
2. Fat Transfers Look More Natural Than Other Types of Implants
Creating the perfect shape is always important in any type of cosmetic procedure. Fortunately, using your body’s own fat offers the benefit of a more natural-looking end result. Your own fat cells are more likely to look and feel more natural than a synthetic filler.
3. Fat Transfers Don’t Always Require General Anesthesia
Sometimes general anesthesia isn’t always required during a fat transfer treatment. It depends where you decide to have the fat harvested from and transferred to, but there’s a chance local anesthesia can be used, which will minimize your recovery time.
4. Fat Transfers Are Minimally Invasive
Fat transfer procedures use small micro-incisions, so they are not as invasive as most traditional implants. This means your recovery time will be shorter. Recovery times vary based on where the incisions take place, but here’s what you can expect:
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- If your face was treated, you can expect swelling to subside in about 10-15 days.
- If your hands were treated, you will likely have minor swelling and light bruising for 10-14 days.
Studies show that over half of the fat cells transferred to the new location will survive long term. At two months post-transfer, you can expect to see about 80% of the final results. At six months post-transfer, results are said to be close to final and likely permanent.
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5. Fat Transfers Reduce the Risk of Negative Reactions
Using your own fat cells reduces the risk of your body rejecting the fat transfer. Although implants today have very low rejection rates, a fat transfer treatment comes with little risk of negative reactions.