After completing her six-year plastic surgery residency at Yale, Dr. Craig was awarded a microsurgery fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where she was then hired as an Assistant Professor in plastic surgery until joining the successful practice of Dr. Fusi. Dr. Craig has pursued additional specializations by training directly with one of the world’s top facial plastic surgeons, Dr. Timothy Marten.

How Does Fat Grafting Assist in Facial Rejuvenation?

Aging gradually depletes the stores of fat that imbue our face, eyes, and neck with the youthful firmness characteristic of our teens and 20s. When older Houston patients want to recapture their youthful appearance, fat grafting may be recommended to enhance results because:

  • Surgical procedures such as face and neck lift, alone, do not always restore the volume loss that inevitably adds years to our appearance.

Fat grafting adds increased soft tissue dimension with more ability to shape facial contour. The best efforts of a facelift cannot restore the volume lost to age and gravity. Fat grafting adds fat where it has been lost to restore a youthful contour that can take years from your appearance.

Where Do You Obtain Fat for Fat Grafting?

Fat grafting is paired with a specific type of gentle liposuction. While facial procedures do not require much fat to be effective, Houston patients can combine liposuction with fat grafting to achieve more natural results for facial plastic surgery. By obtaining fat from the patient’s body, there is low risk of rejection and the fat transfer is very successful when performed by an experienced plastic surgeon.

The most common area for fat grafting is the face because it most obviously loses volume as we age. However, many Houston patients prefer fat grafting to enhance their hands, breasts, or buttocks. Depending on the results that you want, fat grafting can provide a very natural rejuvenated appearance.

What Happens During Fat Grafting?

Fat grafting requires a gentler approach to liposuction because live fat cells must be harvested and then transferred to restore volume. In fat grafting procedures for both face and body, Dr. Fusi and Dr. Craig will:

  • Perform gentle liposuction to obtain live fat cells.
  • Prepare the fat cells for injection by cleansing them.
  • Restore volume to depleted areas by transferring small amounts of fat until volume is restored.

The process of fat grafting takes time and advanced knowledge of facial anatomy. Our doctors employ methods from their training with renowned facial plastic surgeon Dr. Timothy Marten to provide Houston patients with natural results.

How Long Will It Take to Recover?

Fat grafting has minimal downtime, a few days to a week in most patients. Houston patients may experience the following symptoms for the first few days:

  • Soreness.
  • Redness.
  • Bruising.
  • Swelling.

You will notice your results immediately following your surgery, although your symptoms may cause areas to look more swollen. After a few weeks of healing, the final results may be apparent but your overall healing time will depend on which other procedures you have combined with your fat grafting.

To learn more about how fat grafting can restore natural firmness and volume to your skin contact our Houston office at 713-346-9909, to schedule your consultation.