A new technology – facial fat grafting with PRP using the stromal vascular fraction- can provide a long-lasting younger look without surgery. Note that the image above is not a Before and After picture.
Editor’s Note: Dr. Brian Machida is a double board certified facial plastic surgeon in metro Los Angeles. He has an exceptional level of experience, having performed more than 5,000 facial rejuvenation procedures in his career. Dr. Machida served for years as a clinical professor at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine. He is now in private practice at STC Plastic Surgery in Ontario, CA, in California’s Inland Empire.
If the face looking back at you in the mirror looks old, tired and gaunt, perhaps with sunken cheeks, hollows, lines and creases, new technology offers a long-lasting solution without surgery. For years, dermal fillers based on human substances like hyaluronic acid provided pleasing results virtually overnight. Unfortunately, these must be renewed on a schedule, because the body absorbs them, lessening and then eliminating their good effects.
A new treatment offers the easy, quick results of fillers – except that these results can last for years. The technique is a 21st century version of an established treatment – SVF (Stromal Vascular Fraction) facial fat grafting with Adipose Derived Stem Cells. This latest advance improves on current fat transfer methods because it harvests and uses a higher percentage of your own fat stem cells, which can produce much better results.
Facial Fat Grafting Advantages and Disadvantages
Facial fat grafting offers many advantages. It involves removing fat cells from body areas where they’re not wanted and depositing them where they’re needed. Since this uses your own fat cells, there are few side effects. Fat cells, once they “take,” can fill sunken cheeks, facial hollows and lines for years.
There’s just one problem – how many fat cells will “take,” attaching themselves to collagen matrices below the skin? This is often hard to predict. The answer varies from patient to patient. Grafted fat “take” rates average around 50%. They can drop to 30% or less. This can result in less than satisfactory results and the need for additional treatments to achieve your goals.
In addition, unprocessed fat cells are in relatively large clumps. Transferring them requires a large needle, which can cause discomfort and bruising. Traditional fat transfer can do an excellent job filling in sunken cheeks, hollows and large lines. But it cannot fill fine lines well, as do dermal fillers.
Improving the Odds with PRP
New technology offers patients the chance to eliminate traditional facial fat grafting’s disadvantages and increase the likelihood of success on the first try. Two new innovations can make a real difference:
New devices can essentially filter out large mature fat cell clumps that have a lower survival rate. This leaves behind young or immature fat cells that are much smaller which are contained in a Stromal Vascular Fraction. This has the highest concentration of Adipose Derived Stem Cells. Your surgeon can inject them with a finer needle, increasing comfort and reducing bruising.
Another new advance involves drawing a vial of the patient’s blood, separating it and harvesting platelet-rich plasma (PRP), which is full of growth factors. Platelets, a major blood component that helps to stop bleeding, can reduce the chances of bruising even more. In addition, growth factors in the PRP can dramatically improve young or immature fat cell survival rates.
These techniques are combined to give you cutting edge regenerative medical technology applied to restore volume to y our face. Fat grafting retention rates, often with one treatment, for sunken cheeks, facial hollows and fine lines have increased substantially with this applied technology.
Are you a good candidate?
If you have the kind of deep lines and hollows that would normally respond well to dermal fillers, 21st century facial fat grafting may be right for you. An experienced plastic surgeon or facial plastic surgeon that offers facial fat grafting will be able to tell if it is likely to work well in your case. If you’re a good candidate, and if you’re comfortable with the procedure, you may well find a long-lasting solution to an age old problem. It can help you look younger and more attractive for years.
