Fat Transfer Face

The surgery when done on its own, can take about an hour, it might last longer when combined with other procedures.

Unless combined with other procedures, such as facelift, you are discharged on the same day after an appropriate period of observation.

You will be able to get back to light housework from the next day onwards but might want to take a week to 10 days off, before you go out and work. You should stock your kitchen for this period so that you don't need to leave the house until the swelling has reduced.

Fillers such as Dermal Fillers like Voluma®, Lyft®, Volift® can give you instant volumizing and line filling results. On the other hand, fat needs about 3 months to settle down to showcase the final result. At the end of this 3-month period, you might need another treatment of fat transfer depending on how your body has accepted the transferred fat. Dermal fillers, however, have a limited life of 8 months to 2 years, once established the results of fat transfer will be lifelong.

It takes about 3 to 6 months to see a stable result of fat transfer. At this point, if there has been adequate volumisation, the effect will last for a lifetime, as long as your body weight stays more or less constant.

You can encounter bruising or swelling at the area from where the fat was harvested, the entry point might have a little discharge for a couple of days. In the treated area, you will experience a moderate degree of swelling, mild pain or tenderness that will subside over time.

The swelling can increase over the first 3 days after the surgery, at which point it starts diminishing slowly. This process can be helped with sleeping with extra pillows, staying upright and using cold packs in the initial stages. The swelling and bruising generally dissipate over a few weeks. You can start using makeup as early as the 4th postoperative day.

It will be around a week to 10 days before the swelling and bruising have settled to a level where you might feel comfortable with going out of the house.

Yes, it is a well-established, safe procedure, that can reliably volumise the face. Sometimes, 2 – 3 such procedures might be required to achieve the optimum result if the fat does not get established after the first operation. There is on average a 30 – 50% loss of transplanted cells because they can't get enough oxygen supply in the early stages.

Other than the advice related to recovery, you need to keep a healthy lifestyle and avoid weight fluctuations to retain the result you have for the rest of your life. The transferred fat will behave just the same as elsewhere in your body, and therefore will increase or decrease with significant weight gain or loss.