Fat injections to the face

In this video I talk about the reasons why I often find myself recommending fat grafts to the cheek, and to the face, when patients come to me wanting a rejuvenation of the face… wanting to, in general, look younger. Fat grafts, also known as Fat transfer or Fat injections, are a great way to rejuvenate the face.

When anyone looks at a face, the area they naturally focus on is right around the eyes. Although when we look at ourselves in the mirror we might tend to concentrate at the lower area of the face, if your goal is an overall younger looking appearance, focus on restoring the volume of the upper face since that’s the area others focus on. Fat grafting to the cheeks can produce a younger looking face without stretching the skin.

As you age, your dermis thins, and your face begins to sag. You may lose volume in your cheeks and under your eyes. These areas appear to be hollow or not as defined as they were when you were younger. Additionally, some people have areas of their face lacking volume no matter what their age. Fat grafts will naturally fill those areas to restore your youthful appearance. Cheek implants are okay in some patients but the volume of a cheek implant is circumscribed whereas fat injections are much more diffused and more natural feeling. Additionally, fat grafting uses your own adipose fat which contains adults stem cells. Adult stem cells have regenerative properties that can increase blood supply to your tissue and skin to make you look younger.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Dr. Ricardo Rodriguez and today I want to talk to you about fat graft to the face.

Whenever I look at the face, and whenever anybody looks at the face, the area that they naturally focus on is right around the eyes. It’s what’s called the eyes and the mid face, which is this area, right here.

A lot of people come to me wanting rejuvenation of the face, or to look younger, and they focus on the lower area. But really what other people see in you is this area, and the best technique to make that area look younger is restoring the volume that you had there when you were younger.

For example, when you look at my face, there has been an emptying out of the volume in here. Most people think that it’s skin excess, and as a matter of fact I used to think that it’s skin excess, and I used to do what’s called a mid facelift trying to stretch out this skin. However; long term results used to always show me that this area always seemed to be a little bit empty.

Ever since I started doing fat grafting to the cheeks, I’m getting much better results and the area looks much younger without having to stretch the skin.

Now, one definite way that you know that you can take more volume in that area, is to get a two-way mirror, or one mirror on one side and the other on the other side, and look at yourself from the side. If the front part of your eyeball is ahead, or in front of, this part of your cheek – then you have a deficit of volume in the anterior cheek. And just putting some fat in that area will make you look a lot younger, or even just better.

For example, in this picture, there’s a young patient who nobody would say she has wrinkled skin, or sagging skin, she just had a deficit of tissue in this area and fat injections to the cheek made her look a lot better.

Likewise, some patients who think they have bags under the eyes, really what they have is just the eyeball itself coming up against the skin and then a deficit on the cheek. And when you inject those patients with fat in that area, they look much better, and their proportions are restored to the mid face.

Some physicians and surgeons have recommended the use of cheek implants for that area. And cheek implants are okay in some patients, but remember, the volume of a cheek implant is circumscribed and it’s really just around this area; whereas, when you inject fat into this area, you inject it around the entire anterior cheek. It’s much more diffused, much more natural feeling, and I think it gives a better result in the end.

Finally, there is one more point about fat injections and that is that they have stem cells in them, so they actually not only make you look younger, they make the skin younger. The stem cells in the fat graft will rejuvenate a lot of the structures of the skin and actually make it younger.

It’s for this reason that I find myself recommending fat grafting to the cheek, and to the face, a lot more often.

Thank you very much.

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