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Structural fat grafting is a procedure that harvests fat from an area or areas of your body and places it elsewhere. The procedure can be used on the upper eyelids, eyebrows, and temples to provide a more youthful appearance.
Structural fat grafting can be used in the upper eyelids, eyebrows, and temples to:
Structural fat grafting can fix problems by transferring fat from one or more areas of your body and placing it elsewhere. If you are unhappy with the appearance of your upper eyelids, eyebrows, and temples, the procedure can help you.
At your first office visit, a staff member will explain the procedure and talk to you about your medical history. You can look through photos of previous patients to see results.
You should bring photos of your younger self to give the surgical team an idea of the look you want to restore. Or if you would like your facial features to resemble another person’s, you can bring photos of them.
A staff member also will take photos of the way you look now. The surgeon will use those photos to create a plan for the procedure. That includes where the fat will be taken from and where it will be placed.
The surgical team will mark the harvest and graft sites with colored pens. The amount of fat used in facial procedures generally is very small.
After harvesting the fat, the surgical team will use a centrifuge to remove unwanted components, such as oil, water, and blood. This refines and concentrates the fat, making it ideal for grafting.
The team then will place the fat in tiny amounts, sculpting it to create the best looking result.
The time of the procedure depends on the size of it, including the number of donor sites and the extent of what the surgeon is fixing. Structural fat grafting, in general, can take anywhere from under two hours to five hours.
The procedure usually takes place under general anesthesia, but doctors may use local anesthesia with sedation in minor cases.
Your recovery will depend on the extent of the procedure. That includes how many donor sites you had, and how large of an area the surgeon treated.
There will be swelling and bruising in both the donor and graft sites. Bruising and swelling in the places where fat was placed should be gone within two to three weeks. It may take longer for swelling to completely disappear, and eyelids usually takes longer to subside.
Swelling subsides more slowly in the donor sites, sometimes taking up to six months to completely go away.
You can expect a more youthful, natural look to your face after the procedure. Although fat can be easily damaged, structural fat grafting has shown more positive results than general fat grafting. There are no current studies for fat survival rate in humans, but the procedure has corrected a large variety of problems.
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