Fat or fillers – that is the question. When refreshing facial appearance, our patients have many options available, including facial fat grafting and dermal fillers. These two treatments restore facial volume to smooth wrinkles and recreate youthful facial contours. Using fat and fillers to refresh the facial appearance can provide lasting rejuvenation to your appearance.
Learn more about facial fat grafting and dermal fillers to determine which choice is right for you.
Fat Grafting vs. Dermal Fillers: What Are the Advantages of Each Treatment Option?
Fat grafting and dermal fillers are two popular options for treating wrinkles and facial volume loss due to aging. Both treatments work similarly and restore volume and shape to the face. Dermal fillers achieve this effect using an injectable solution that contains hyaluronic acid or another biocompatible substance. Fat grafting uses a patient’s own donor fat in place of a synthetic filler.
Explore the unique benefits each treatment offers patients.
Facial Fat Grafting
- Fat grafting results usually last longer than fillers. Since transferred fat cells integrate into your facial tissues, results can last for years. Many patients won’t need retreatment.
- Fat grafting uses your natural body fat, eliminating the risk of rejection or reaction.
- In performing a fat transfer, your surgeon will first need to extract fat from an area of your body where you have a little bit extra. This is not liposuction however, and you probably will not see a significant change at the donor site. There is only a very small puncture of the skin to retrieve the desired amount of fat.
- The fat is usually prepared by allowing the original syringes to settle so that any blood or broken fat cells can be discarded and the best quality fat cells are transferred into smaller syringes and used for grafting in the face.
- Fat is primarily used to replace soft tissue volume that has been naturally depleted with the aging process but there does seem to be some additional regenerative improvement in the quality of the overlying skin.
Dermal Fillers
- Fillers are non-surgical. There is no need for incisions, stitches, or downtime after treatment.
- Fillers are versatile because of the myriad types of fillers available to combat the aging process. Plump the lips, smooth wrinkles, and refresh your appearance without having to go to the operating room and without a donor site.
- There is usually much less downtime because there is usually much less bruising and swelling with filler than there is with fat grafting.
- Most of our patients are delighted by their dermal filler results, but if you’re not, many filler treatments are reversible with a simple, non-surgical treatment.
Both fat and fillers offer an array of advantages and benefits. Whichever option you choose, know that a refreshed and revitalized appearance is one of the many benefits you’ll experience.
Are Fillers or Fat Grafting Right for Me?
If you’re considering dermal fillers or fat grafting for facial rejuvenation, come into MAE Plastic Surgery and explore your options with our board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Epstein or one of our skin care experts. These treatment options are safe and effective for many men and women that want to refresh their facial appearance.
Dermal fillers and facial fat grafting work best as solo treatments on patients with minimal to moderate signs of aging. More advanced aging may require a surgical treatment that removes skin – like a facelift, brow lift, or eyelid surgery – to achieve the best results. Many of our patients choose to pair these surgical treatments with fat grafting to enhance and extend their results.
Learn More About Fat Grafting and Fillers at MAE Plastic Surgery
Restore your appearance with fat grafting or dermal fillers. Contact our office to learn more about these treatments and to receive personalized treatment recommendations from one of the top plastic surgery practices in the Chicago area. We look forward to helping you discover ageless beauty. Reach out to us today.