Question: Fat grafting doesn’t seem as popular as other procedures. Is it not as effective as surgery or fillers?

Answer: Fat grafting is overall a very popular procedure but certainly not as popular as injectable fillers simply because of the fact that injectable fillers have, for the most part, absolutely no downtime and are extremely easy and overall cost effective since you simply grab a syringe of filler off the shelf and we can inject it into appropriate areas of the face to give an enhancement and improve the aesthetics in a very simple way.  Fat transfer requires the harvesting of the fat, which involves liposuction of the belly or hips or knees and then we process the fat and then re-inject it using very small blunt-tipped cannulas.  Multiple passes with the cannula are necessary to maximize the viability of the fat and, therefore, patients have much more swelling than when compared to an injectable filler.  Surgery is going to be able to improve laxity and most often I am performing fat grafting in combination with other surgical procedures so that we can not only improve the laxity of the face but also volumize the face with the fat grafting.  This combination treatment gives the best overall aesthetic results.

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Question: Is it normal after getting fat transfer for the area to feel hard?

Answer: Depending on how long ago you had fat transfer, it is not unusual for areas to feel firm or hard, but this typically softens up significantly in the first two to three weeks of the treatment.  If you still have a firm or hard area after that time period, you may want to consider seeing your surgeon to make sure there is not a small fat granuloma forming that may benefit from an injection of a dilute steroid solution. 

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Question: What sorts of complications are possible with chin implants?

Answer: Chin implants can cause temporary or permanent numbness of the chin.  The implant can be placed improperly or shift during the healing phase to the point where it would need to be revised.  There is always a very small risk of infection with need of implant removal and there is a risk of temporary weakness of the muscles that pull the corner of the mouth down.  All of these risks are exceptionally small and although temporary numbness of the chin is the most common side effect of an implant, this virtually always dissipates in the first few months and overall chin implants have an extremely high patient satisfaction. 

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Question: Do people still get cheek implants or are injectable fillers used more often these days?

Answer: People definitely still get cheek implants and in fact many times cheek implant patients are patients who previously had been getting injectable fillers in their cheeks and decided they would like something that is permanent.  I actually like having cheek implant patients undergo treatment with injectable fillers just to make sure that they like the aesthetic improvement of volumizing their cheek area.  If they like the filler then I feel more confident that once we place the cheek implants in that they will be extremely happy with the result long term.  

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Question: What areas of the face are addressed with a mini facelift?

Answer: A mini facelift mainly addresses the jowls and laxity under the chin and that is why many people will call this a form of a neck lift since it really does little to the cheek area.  Mini lifts can definitely improve marionette lines if they are long and overall they are extremely successful at rejuvenating the lower third of a face.  The upside of the mini lift is that it can be performed in an office setting using strictly local anesthetic and is much less expensive than a more advanced style of facelift technique; however, for many patients, especially those with more advanced signs of aging, they would be better served with the more advanced facelift techniques since they will ultimately get a better result that will last much longer. 

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