Question: I am a 29-year-old male interested in receiving collagen injections for my lips. What are the differences between bovine and synthetic collagen injectable fillers?

Answer: Well, bovine collagen comes from cows and synthetic collagen is produced in a lab. With that said, I would highly recommend that you reconsider getting collagen injections in your lips since for the most part hyaluronic acid filler can be used very similarly to collagen but they will last much longer.

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Question: I have heard that after a facial fat transfer there is a risk of having pockets of fat grouping in areas of my face. If this happens how can this be smoothed out?

Answer: For one, it is highly unlikely to have pockets of fat grouping in areas of you face if the fat injection technique is performed using extremely small cannulas and injecting extremely small amounts of fat in multiple different levels and layers. Not only does this help prevent the grouping or bunching of fat but it also greatly increased the viability of the fat long-term. If for some reason you do have small pockets of fat these can be smoothed out in one of 2 ways. Either injecting fat in and around the grouping so that it smoothes it out or you can make a very small incision and essentially squeeze out that small amount of fat but this would involve typically a small incision which could leave a very small but inconspicuous scar. I feel that prevention is much better than revising and therefore I always inject fat in extremely small quantities over multiple different layers and levels to prevent the grouping from occurring.

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Question: Would I need to quit smoking in order to have a successful facial fat transfer?

Answer: I would always recommend to all of my patients that smoke that they really try their best to discontinue this bad habit since it has an overall aging effect to patient’s facial and body tissue. But will it have a distinct negative on fat transfer? I really cannot answer but more than likely any effect would be rather minimal but theoretically it could reduce the vascularity of the injected fat and therefore reduce the viability of the fat long-term. So again, I would highly recommend all of my patients to quit smoking before any sort of procedure and I would highly recommend that they just quit altogether.

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Question: After chin implant surgery will my face be bandaged? If so, for how long?

Answer: I typically do not place any bandages on patients when I perform a chin implant so it is doubtful that you will end up with any sort of external bandages from that procedure. The surgery is performed through a small incision under the chin, though some surgeons will go through the inside of the mouth to avoid a visible scar. My personal belief is the scar is so inconspicuous that it is really not an issue and this affords me the ability to perform this under strict sterile conditions as well as prevents the need to breach the mentalis muscle of the chin and thus in my opinion has a lower risk of any sort of complications. Sutures are removed in 5 to 7 days and the augmentation is instant, immediate, and lasts a lifetime.

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Question: I love the idea of a quick facelift and just read about the mini-facelift. I have the beginning of jowls, lumps of skin and fat on my lower jaw. I also have a lot of lose skin on my neck. Can both of these issues be addressed with the mini-facelift? What is the recovery time for this procedure?

Answer: A mini-lift can lift the jowls and get rid of laxity under the chin but it is not going to get rid of fullness or fatty tissue under the chin so you may also need liposuction in this area. This certainly can be performed at the same time as the mini-lift and in fact oftentimes these 2 procedures complement each other. These can both be performed under local anesthesia. After the procedure a pressure dressing is applied that you would wear overnight and then remove the next day. You would then be asked to wear an elastic sling to elevate the skin and soft tissue under the chin and I recommend patients wear this as much as possible for the first week. Stitches from the mini-lift are removed in 7 days. There really is minimal to no downtime from the actual liposuction. Overall downtime can be as little as a day if patients do not have any visible bruising from the procedure. Otherwise, patients can cover any visible bruising with makeup as long as they do not cover the actual incision in and around the ears, so many of my patients will return to work in literally 1 to 2 days. Otherwise, sutures will be removed in a week and cover makeup can actually then be applied across the incision as well. So overall for most patients downtime is minimal and yet the affects can be rather stunning.

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