“I hate my love handles.” Again and again, patients tells us of their disdain for their extra fat, but we want you to rethink those feelings. Fat grafting, also known as fat transfer, can turn unwanted extra fat into youthful fullness and better curves. You don’t have too much fat, you just have fat in the wrong places. Come discover how fat grafting can transform and enhance your shape.
What Is Fat Grafting?
Do you ever wish you could move the extra fat from your belly to your buttocks? Fat grafting is an innovative surgical procedure that allows us to do just that. We use liposuction to remove unwanted fat from an area with excess. This fat is cleaned, processed, and purified. Then, the prepared fat is placed into syringes and used as a filler to enhance and augment areas in need of additional fullness. Fat grafting provides comparable results to an injectable filler, but lasts longer, often permanently. Since your own cells and tissues are used, risk of rejection is minimal.
Fat grafting can enhance the body from head to toe. Even better, it treats two areas at once: the area where we remove the fat and the area where the fat is transferred. Fat grafting can add natural looking volume to many areas including:
- Cheeks
- Deep facial wrinkles
- Skin depressions and pitted scars
- Lips
- Hands
- Buttocks
The Benefits of Fat Transfer
There’s a lot to love about fat, your body’s underappreciated, but hard-working storage cells. There are too many benefits to fat grafting to list them all here, but here are some of our favorites:
- Natural looking results
- Improve two areas with one treatment
- Long lasting
- No risk of allergic reaction or rejection
- Natural feeling
- Minimal scarring
- Shape, sculpt, and perfect your shape
- Restore lost volume (facial)
- Augment and enhance
Fat Grafting FAQs
Are you interested in learning more? Call our offices today to schedule your fat grafting consultation with Dr. Krochmal and Dr. Epstein. You probably have questions about the procedure. Keep reading for answers to frequently asked questions. If you don’t see your question on the list below, don’t worry. We’ll answer any questions you have when you come in for your consultation. Write your questions down and bring them with you when you come in.
- How Long Does a Fat Grafting Treatment Take? – Typically, treatments take one to two hours, depending on the size of the areas to be treated.
- How Long Until I Can Return to Work After Fat Grafting? – While it may depend on the volume and location of your fat grafting procedure, you can often return to light activity the next day after treatment. Most patients miss 3-5 days from work.
- What Is Recovery Like After Fat Grafting? – Recovery can be fairly quick for most patients after fat transfer. Minor discomfort is normal and can be controlled with pain medication. You may experience bruising, swelling, redness, or tenderness in the treatment areas.
- Are Fat Grafting Results Permanent? – Fat grafting offers long lasting results. Many patients will enjoy a long term to permanent enhancement in the treated area.
- Is Fat Grafting Safe? – Fat grafting offers safe and effective results. Since we use your own fat, the risk of rejection or allergic reaction is very low. At MAE Plastic Surgery, we focus on patient safety and only provide procedures that are both safe and effective.
- Is There a Lot of Scarring After Fat Grafting? – Scarring is minimal after fat transfer. We use small, inconspicuously placed incisions during liposuction. We carefully close incisions to reduce scarring. The fat is placed using injections. These injections typically leave no visible scars. Your genetics play a key role in determining how much scarring you’ll experience after fat transfer.
- What Happens If I Lose Weight? – Fat cells grow and shrink depending on the amount of excess fat in your body. As your weight fluctuates, so will your results. We recommend staying at a stable weight after treatment for the best results.
- I’m Very Thin. Will Fat Transfer Work for Me? – For a successful fat transfer, we need fat. This is one of those times where having a little extra fat is a good thing. Most patients have plenty of excess fat, but if you’re very thin and have little excess fat, fat transfer may not be your best option. Injectable fillers can often achieve similar results on the face.
- Am I a Good Candidate for Fat Transfer? – Fat transfer is an excellent procedure for many men and women. You may be a good candidate if you have wrinkles, sunken areas or skin depressions, or if you want to increase breast or buttocks size. We’ll help you determine if you’re a good candidate during your consultation. If fat transfer isn’t the right option for you, we’ll recommend other treatment options.
Love your extra fat. Call today and schedule your fat grafting consultation at MAE Plastic Surgery, one of Chicago’s top plastic surgery practices.