The coolest thing to hit plastic surgery has recently arrived! Fat grafting can take fat removed from an area where you don’t want it and put it somewhere you do. Officially known as autologous fat transfer or transplant, it will remove fat from an area of stubborn deposits, such as the abdomen, thighs or buttocks and transfer it to another area such as the breasts, buttocks or deep lines of the face for a self created breast augmentation or wrinkle reducer.
Fat transfer involves the removal of excess fat from an area of the body where you might have liposuction done - most commonly in the buttocks, abdomen or thighs. The fat is then cleaned and injected into the face to fill lines, wrinkles and facial abnormalities, such as acne pock marks. It can also be used to enhance the lips and make them fuller.
Recently, some physicians have started using larger amounts of fat to perform breast augmentation. Known as autologous fat transplant surgery, the fat is removed through liposuction and placed in the area of the breast that contains fat tissue. The fat that has been transplanted will establish new blood supply and will be living tissue just the same as the fat that is already in the breasts.
It is a completely natural way to have a breast augmentation without the necessity of artificial implants. Many patients retain up to 80 percent of the fat graft tissue resulting in a more natural appearance of a larger breast without the obvious artificial look of most types of breast augmentation.
A new trend has actually had some people considering buttocks augmentation. This can only be accomplished with fat transplant as there are not any artificial buttocks implants. The fat would be removed from another area, most likely the abdomen, and injected into the buttocks to create a rounder fuller gluteal appearance.
Fat grafting is also generally considered to be safer as the procedure is being done with cells of your own body so there is no chance of rejection or complications from inserting foreign material into the body. Whether fat grafts are performed for cosmetic facial reasons or plastic surgery reasons, it is a safe procedure with a lower risk for complications.
Recovery time from a fat grafting procedure will generally be dictated by the extent of the liposuction procedure. If a large amount of liposuctioning is done, the recovery period will be longer.
Fat grafts are not performed by all cosmetic surgeons. As it is a fairly new procedure, it takes a skilled plastic surgeon to perform the procedure. When considering a surgeon for a fat transplant procedure, you need to ensure that he or she has performed a number of similar cosmetic surgeries and that you can see a number of before and after fat injection pictures. This will increase the chance that you will be happy with your fat grafting procedure.