(mellow music)
- A famous French actress, Catherine Deneuve,
once said, at a certain age, you pick your face
or your backside.
And what she meant by this, I think, was that
at a certain age what happens to the face
is that it loses its natural plumpness,
its natural fat stores, and what tends to happen is
that fat, for some reason, migrates southwards
and places itself wherever you don't want it to be.
So as a doctor, how can I help treat this problem?
One of the ways is fat transfer.
It sounds very simple, but makes sense.
It involves taking the fat from an area you don't like,
for example, the abdomen, hips, buttocks, inner thighs,
wherever there's a stubborn fat deposit,
and putting that fat back into the face.
By doing this, we are naturally fighting the aging process.
What we are doing is replenishing volume in the face
and slimming the body down.
What is the first step in this procedure?
The first step is to harvest the fat.
Now, only a very small amount of fat is required,
usually in the order of 60 mils or less.
This can be harvested via a mini liposuction
to an area such as the abdomen, and then this fat
is basically injected into the face.
On the first procedure, fat is usually harvested
and immediately injected into areas of the face.
And there is no delay between the two parts
of the procedure.
Some of the fat which remains from harvesting
can be frozen and then thawed and used at a later date,
so you can actually have a second procedure
to top up the first one without having to
go through a liposuction again.
The fat that is injected into the face is
strategically placed to give you the ideal lift and fullness
without going overboard, and the whole purpose of it,
really, is to return your face to a previous volume state.
The procedure itself can be done in a number of ways.
You can be fully awake, because of local anesthetic,
the procedure's not particularly uncomfortable.
Or you can have it with some intravenous sedation
or a general anesthetic, if required.
There are several advantages to fat transfer
as a revolumizing procedure with the face.
One of the key advantages is that it is autologous,
which means that it's your own fat,
so you can't get any reactions or any side effects
or allergies to it.
The other main benefit is that it gives you
a very natural-looking result.
The fat itself is very soft,
it doesn't have any hard edges,
and usually people just think you look younger
and fresher and they won't be actually able
to pinpoint exactly what's changed.
Fat, when transferred to the face, can also last
a very long time, which makes it excellent value.
One of the interesting advantages to fat transfer
to the face is that fat naturally contains
a lot of stem cells.
Stem cells are the regenerative cells of the body.
They are highly abundant in fat,
and when injected into an area like the face,
along with fat, they can help to regenerate,
rejuvenate, and renew skin.
So you often get a really nice glow to your skin
after fat transfer.
Rather too often, as doctors or surgeons in the field,
we look at tightening the face and pulling the face,
for example, having a facelift or removing some excess skin.
Maybe some of this is driven by patient demand as well.
However, one of the things that really rejuvenates the face
is volume replacement, and fat transfer is one of
the keystones to doing this.
Often surgical procedures that lift or pull back the face
without adding volume back to the face can produce
a very unnatural look.
You may look slightly overpulled, cheeks may be flattened,
and the face may take on an appearance which doesn't
look like what you used to look like a few years ago.
In many cases, fat transfer alone can produce enough lift
and revolumization to improve the face and
rejuvenate the face without having to go under the lifting
or major surgical procedure.
(mellow music)