Fat Transfer or Facelift?

Fight Facial Sagging and Wrinkles by Facial Fat Transfer

As you age, you may notice that things have naturally begun to slide a little, well, south. This may have you considering fighting back against time with a myriad of over the counter creams and lotions promoted to fight against gravity and firm up the skin. You may have even considered a facelift in order to lift everything back up to its natural place and smooth out wrinkles. While over the counter creams and lotions certainly have their place, and facelifts have some benefits, the best way to fight facial sagging and wrinkles is to have a facial fat transfer also known as facial fat grafting.

Dr. Johnson performs facial fat transfers on patients who looking to turn back the clock and look younger and explains why fat transfers are better than facelifts for fighting facial sagging and wrinkles. So, why exactly are facial fat transfer the best way to fight facial sagging and wrinkles?

Why Use Facial Fat Transfer or Fat Grafting to Look Younger?

Facial fat transfer is the best way to fight sagging and wrinkles because it is the loss of fat volume, not gravity, that makes you look older. As a matter of fact, gravity has very little to do with it at all. Fat volume peaks in our early twenties, filling out our faces nicely and keeping our skin taut and everything in place. When fat volume begins to diminish, things start moving and changing. This can cause the face to look gaunt or hollow in some areas like the cheeks and temples. Wrinkles and creases also develop, and even skin quality, brightness, and elasticity diminish as fat decreases. Fat transfer can restore facial fat volume, quickly and easily, without the downtime of a traditional facelift.

How is Facial Fat Transfer Performed at Innovations Medical?

Dr. Bill Johnson harvests fat from areas you do not want it (abdomen, love handles, thighs), refines the fat, and then carefully re-injects it into specific areas of your face. It is truly a mixture of science and art and offers a worthy substitution for fillers or facelifts. Dr. Johnson plans the procedure by comparing a current photo of the patient to a photo of the patient when they were 18-20 years old. At 18-20 years old, our bodies have the most facial fat and photos from this age provide accurate representations of what was, and what could be after facial fat transfer or facial fat grafting. At Innovations Medical, all facial fat transfer procedures are done while awake, under local anesthesia. The patient is able to walk out of the office after the procedure.

Who Is A Good Candidate for Facial Fat Transfer?

• Patients that have depressions or hollows in their checks due to natural aging
• Patients with thin or have a skeleton-like appearance of the frontal cheek or chin area
• Patients with sagging jowls
• Anyone wanting a more long-lasting rejuvenation of their face

Recovery Comparisons of Traditional Facelift to Facial Fat Transfer

•  A traditional facelift procedure is major surgery, and requires the lifting and stretching back up over the face in order to smooth out wrinkles.
• The fat transfer procedure is minimally invasive, patients return to work and activities in a matter of days, versus weeks of recovery and downtime that are required with facelift surgery.
• The fat transfer procedure takes fat from the patient’s own body through Smart Lipo liposuction and injects it into the face, there is no need to put the patient under general anesthesia. Instead, patients are numbed using a tumescent fluid in the area of collection.
• There are also no only tiny scars with a facial fat transfer, in comparison to a facelift that leaves behind scars – often behind the ears or hidden in the hairline.

To find out if you are a candidate for Fat Autograft Muscle Injection (FAMI): Fat Transfer for the Face, call Dr. Johnson today at  214-643-8665. Innovations Medical performs Fat Transfer for the Face in both our Dallas and Fort Worth locations.