Facial Fat Grafting

A facial fat transfer procedure has three steps and can take up to two hours, depending on how much fat is being shifted.

1. Harvesting the Fat

You and Dr Ching will choose the area where the fat will be removed via liposuction (usually on your thighs or abdomen).

You’ll be given local anaesthesia with sedation.

Dr Ching will make a small cut in the donor area and insert a cannula to remove and collect the fat.

2. Purifying and preparing the fat

The fat cells are centrifuged and then processed to remove impurities.

The purified fat is then transferred to smaller syringes, ready to be injected.

3. Injecting the Fat

Once your face is numbed with local anaesthesia, Dr Ching inserts a tiny cannula into the area to be Fat grafted, passing the cannula many times through this area.

Each pass places a fine line of fat at different levels until the desired result is achieved. The fat then develops a blood supply from the surrounding tissue to survive.

Most patients take 1 week off work after facial fat grafting, and most activities can be resumed within 3 to 5 days.

In the first week, you will have some swelling, inflammation, bruising, and pain at the injection sites.

You can also expect minimal discomfort at the donor sites for a few days. Pain medication will be prescribed for this.

Swelling should resolve within 2 weeks. Keeping your face elevated on pillows can help reduce the swelling. “Most surgeons do not advise using ice as we want to maximize fat survival,” explains Dr Ching

Bruising should dissipate within 2 weeks. Use a gentle facial cleanser, and don’t scrub your skin until all inflammation has resolved.

Your final results from facial fat grafting should be seen about 9 months after your procedure.  

In the first three months, 40–60% of the fat cells will die off. Most surgeons overfill expecting this fat loss—so in the first two to four months, the face seems overfilled or puffy in the injected areas. The volume will be at its lowest at three to four months then the fat cells that have survived will start to increase volume from four to nine months.  

A minority of patients end up with minimal results because some (or all) of the transferred fat cells don’t survive. If you are older, less fat will survive, and smokers also tend to have worse outcomes.