Fat Transfers: Common Areas Patients Move Fat To and From

November 13 2021

Fat transfer is a procedure that involves taking unwanted fat from one part of your body, purifying it to remove any impurities and finally adding the fat to a new part of your body with the help of a syringe or cannula. You may find the process of enhancing your features with your own tissue rather than a synthetic implant to be appealing. In this blog, the premier surgeons at Atlanta Plastic & Reconstructive Specialists explain where fat is most often transferred to and from.

Areas Where Fat Is Placed

Without question, the number one procedure that uses fat transfer is butt augmentation. While surgery to enhance the buttocks used to be implant-based, the most popular option is what is known as the Brazilian butt lift. Here, your surgeon will take your own body fat and add it to your rear end. Recognizing its own cells, your body should adopt the transferred fat. Moreover, your surgeon will have an easier time contouring your butt with fat than it could with an implant.

Facial fat transfers have also become a common trend. If areas of your face start to look “hollow,” you may want to inject some fat to mimic the fullness and volume typically found on younger faces. Fat can also be added to  the chin to sharpen your jawline. You may even move fat to the bags beneath your eyes to give your face a younger, more refreshed look.

Hand rejuvenation is also catching on thanks to fat transfer. Similar to your face, your hands are likely to lose volume as the years pass, but it can be replenished with donor fat from elsewhere.

Some breast reconstruction patients also use fat transfer to recreate breasts after a mastectomy. While your recovery from fat transfer reconstruction is significantly longer than it would be if you used breast implants, you may prefer to use your own natural tissue to give your breasts more authenticity.

Where Fat Is Transferred From

For many fat transfer patients, half of the appeal is the ability to say goodbye to fat in unwanted areas. Your surgeon will look at your body and make a recommendation on where it will be easiest to harvest fat from — usually that overlaps with where the patient wants to decrease fat deposits anyway.

The most common areas to harvest fat on the body are the inner thighs, buttocks and flanks because these are places on the body where fat deposits stubbornly cling.

Do not forget, it is possible to remove more fat from an area than will be necessary for the transfer, so long as you arrange that with your surgeon in advance. The goal is to have you feel content with your contours not just where the fat is inserted, but also in the area from which the fat is harvested.

Discuss Fat Transfer with Our Surgeons

If you are interested in learning more about the changes fat transfer can achieve for your unique body, schedule a consultation with one of the talented surgeons at Atlanta Plastic & Reconstructive Specialists by emailing us at your soonest convenience.

Categories: Fat Transfer