Fat Transfer (when you want everything to look great)!

By now, most aware of popular aesthetic, anti-aging advancements know that fillers (Restylane, Juvederm, Radiesse, Bellafill, Revanesse Versa+) are an option to combat the inevitable. These safe, bioidentical products serve to lift and fill areas on- and off- the face that become depleted over time. The results are instantaneous and convenient when you recognize and address the early signs of aging. For most, the more you age, the more volume you lose, and filler (lots of it even placed by the very best injectors), can become expensive. What’s more,  with the exception of Bellafill, most fillers only last a year or two before becoming reabsorbed. 

There is another option that is suitable for volume restoration, is plentiful for most of us, is not a foreign substance, and is long-lasting …for years. Fat transfer correctly placed can offer all these benefits or restoration and more.

The procedure involves harvesting your own fat from unwanted deposits gently, so as not to traumatize the individual fat lobules, and then transferring it as micro-droplets into recipient areas, so that these may graft and cause structural change permanently. The entire procedure is done under tumescent (local) anesthesia along with light sedatives. In other words, there’s no need for general anesthesia.

Fat transfer has gained acceptance and popularity since the early 1990s and was originally performed to fill structural defects. It wasn’t long after, that not only did fat transfer improve contours, but patients and physicians noted regenerative improvements in the skin overlying the grafts. The skin changes result from the activation of stem cells in the transferred, slightly traumatized fat and result in added facial rejuvenation.

Manufactured fillers are convenient and require less downtime, but fat harvesting and transfer allow for full-volume restoration, without the limits of costs. Where a typical filler session may target specific areas such as lips or temples and use about 1-3 syringes, with fat transfer, 30-70 cc’s of harvested fat can be transferred to fully rejuvenate and restructure the entire face, the entire neck, or aged hands.

What’s more, is that in more recent years, fat transfer has been used to augment and/or fill potentially larger volumes: breasts, buttocks, liposuction irregularities, and structural and traumatic defects. Structural deformities, acneiform scarring, and vulvar atrophy (lichen sclerosis et atrophicus[LS & A]) are also being addressed with fat transfer.

Dr. Schroeder has been performing fat transfer procedures on patients since 2004 and currently offers it as a stand-alone procedure, as an adjunct to tumescent liposuction, to augment surgical cosmetic lifts, to treat vulvar atrophy (LS & A), acne/superficial scarring, and structural deformities.

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