Facial Fat Transfer Seattle

Facial fat transfer is a minimally invasive procedure that extracts tissue donated from your own body and transfers it to targeted sites on your face. As one of the best plastic surgeons in Seattle, Dr. Javad Sajan is skilled and experienced at the exacting techniques of fat extraction and transfer.

Time, environmental conditions, health challenges, and gravity all affect the appearance of our face. The natural supplies of collagen, fat, and tissue that support the epidermis (the outer layer of skin), become depleted. Fat transfer is often done to these specific areas of the face:

• Cheeks, lips, chin
• Lines between the nose and mouth
• Crow's feet
• Forehead wrinkles

Fat transfer (also known as fat grafting) is an increasingly popular alternative to fillers and BOTOX treatments. Unlike other filler materials, only a small percentage of the autologous fat (fat from your own body) is reabsorbed so the changes to your face from the fat transfer are often very long-lasting.

Facial fat transfers are becoming increasingly popular among Dr. Sajan's patients. This is mainly because of the appealing benefits the procedure offers, including:

• A minimally-invasive procedure
• A natural approach, using your body's own fat as a filler
• The ability to sculpt a problem area of your body while rejuvenating your face
• No risk of an allergic reaction
• Long-lasting results
• Minimal recovery and downtime

Facial fat transfers are designed to address certain changes that occur with age, such as smile lines, frown lines, thinning lips, wrinkles, and hollow areas under the eyes and cheeks. Because the procedure is safe and all-natural, as long as you want to address cosmetic imperfections that the treatment can fix, there's a very good chance that you'll be considered an ideal candidate.

Facial fat transfers and dermal fillers both offer our patients in Seattle and surrounding areas the opportunity to infuse fresh volume into aging skin, wrinkles and hollow areas. However, they are different in that fat injections don't involve introducing a foreign material into the body. Rather, your own fat is used for the procedure, so it's entirely natural. This is beneficial to patients who are allergic or sensitive to the ingredients found in certain dermal fillers.

In addition, fat injections tend to last much longer than dermal fillers. Although individual results will vary, the results of a facial fat transfer can endure up to two years, while dermal fillers will be broken down by the body over the span of several months. At that point, you'll require repeat injections to maintain your results.

Both fat injections and dermal fillers offer unique advantages and disadvantages for our patients, depending on your unique needs and signs of aging. As such, Dr. Sajan will help you determine which approach is in your best interest during your initial consultation.

Your facial fat transfer is a two-part procedure that will be performed at our state-licensed surgery center. Either a local anesthesia and intravenous sedation or general anesthesia will be used for the procedure. You will be monitored at all times to ensure your comfort and safety.

Prior to surgery, you will have identified areas of your body to be used as fat cell donor sites. Fat cell grafts from those sites will be gently harvested using a liposuction procedure. The grafts will be prepared for transfer using a centrifuge or filtration purification procedure to separate the fat cells from liquid that also is extracted during liposuction.

Once the fat cell grafts are ready for transfer, the implant points on your face will be prepared. Dr. Sajan will use a cannula (an extremely thin tube) inserted through a micro incision at the recipient point to transfer droplets of the purified fat. This insert/transfer process is repeated until the desired effect is achieved at each recipient site.

Your face may feel tight and very tender following surgery and the donor sites may also feel tender or sore. Swelling and bruising are your body's natural responses following a fat transfer. Both will begin to subside during the first week and a significant improvement in appearance and comfort are typically noticeable by day ten. (Subtle swelling may still be present for a number of weeks after your procedure.)

It will be very important for you to follow all Dr. Sajan's pre- and post-procedure instructions, particularly the need to stay well-hydrated. Great care also must be taken to avoid massaging or rubbing the implanted areas for several days post-surgery to allow the best opportunity for blood vessels to grow into and strengthen in the fat grafts.

The results associated with a facial fat transfer are very long-lasting. Although it will vary for each individual patient, it usually takes about a year or two for some of the injected fat to be reabsorbed by the body, while the rest of it remains in place. Most of our patients require multiple fat transfer procedures to ensure that the results are as long-lasting as possible.

When you look refreshed on the outside, you feel refreshed on the inside. Contact Dr. Sajan's Seattle office for a consultation today and learn how his expertise in fat transfer procedures can give your face a brand new look.