As we grow older our face become more and more affected by the sun, gravity and use of expression muscles (chewing, smiling, etc). Deep tissues loose the ability to maintain a young look and expression marks appear on our faces. Fat grafting can help you fill the defects and regain younger appearance. It can be used to fill expression folds, sunken checks, scars and lips. This procedure is not sufficient to treat deep defects like multiple grooves around the mouse of heavy smokers. It can be done as isolated treatment or as a combination with laser, facelift and botox.
During the procedure the surgeon performs a liposuction from various body parts like thighs, tummy and buttocks and then injects the fat into selected areas needs to be filled. After disinfection of the donor and recipient areas, they are being sedated using local anesthetics. Sedative drugs also can be used, if so you may need an escort to avoid driving under their influence. For liposuction the surgeon uses wide needle or canola. After a short treatment the fat is injected to the desired site. The recipient area is usually bandaged. In order to fill sunken chicks often over filling is required because of absorption process of some of the fat injected. This can make your face appear over swollen immediately after the operation.
If the area treated is extensive it is advisable to restrain from activities after the treatment. Although most of the patients can go back to their daily activities right away. There might be redness, swelling and small hemorrhages around both the donor and the recipient sites. The severity of those symptoms usually depends on the magnitude of the procedure. It is advisable to avoid sun exposure until the above disappear (after approximately 48 hours). There is no limitation to use make-up. The swelling can last for weeks especially if the area is large. Every operation has its ricks. The fat being taken from the patient's body doesn't cause allergic responses. There is a small chance of infection.
You must remember that the effect of the injection is only temporary. Due to their biological nature the injected materials disassemble by the body. The duration of the effect depends on genetics, age, skin quality, life style and the area being filled. There are selected cases where the results lasted for a year, but in most cases half of the effect disappears after 3-6 month.