The first reported use of fat grafting was in 1884 when Dr. Thomas Graham performed a fat injection on his wife’s face. Since then, fat grafting has become increasingly popular among oculoplastic surgeons, facial plastic surgeons and plastic surgeons. It is most commonly used to correct wrinkles and volume loss around the eyes, cheeks, chin. and jawline.
Benefits of Under Eye Fat Injections
Injecting fat in your eye tear troughs with fat can naturally restore some of the natural volume under the eyes. A fat injection is a procedure where fat cells are harvested from another part of the body (usually the abdomen) and injected into the area being treated. This helps to plump up areas of the face that have lost volume due to aging. Fat injections are used to treat eyelid hollows and volume loss on the face.
When fat injections are used under the eyes to fill out hollow areas around the eyes it helps to create fuller looking eyes and give the face a youthful look. It is important to emphasize that periorbital hollowing is a condition where there is a noticeable reduction in the volume of fat beneath the skin around the eyes. This occurs when the subcutaneous layer of fat becomes thinner than normal due to a combination of factors including genetics, hormones, diet, lifestyle, and age.
The periocular region is made up of three main areas: the forehead and cheekbones. This region contains both superficial and deep fat compartments. The superficial compartment consists of skin, loose connective tissue and fat. The deep compartment consists of bone and muscle.
Facial Fat Injection Procedure
Fat grafts are obtained from either the abdomen or inner or outer thigh. The donor area is sterilely prepped and a tumescent salt solution containing dilute lidocaine is infiltrated into a deep layer. After twenty minutes the donor site is dropped and a liposuction cannula (like a metal straw) is used to extract fat.
The fat is then placed in a centrifuge for approximately one minute to separate the pure fat from any blood tinged fluid. The fat is then passed through filters in order to shred the fat into tiny particles.
This fat is the placed in small 1cc syringes and is infiltrated into the hollow areas around the eye using a blunt tipped cannula.
Benefits of Eyelid Fat Injections:
- Eyelid fillers is a great procedure to combine with lower eyelid surgery, brow lift or facelift to improve facial volume loss and look more youthful
- Unlike hyaluronic acid fillers, fat injections are natural from your own body
- Eyelid fat injections will last longer and in some cases will permanently restore eyelid volume loss
- Easy to access fat from multiple areas of your body.
Reasons to Avoid Tear Trough Fillers:
- You might require multiple fat injection treatments because your body is absorbing the fat under your eyes
- Ideal candidates for fat grafting are post-menopausal women because hormonal stimulation of fat may enlarge fat grafts therefore it is not an ideal procedure for premenopausal females.
- You might experience prolonged swelling in comparison to hyaluronic acid fillers
- Cost of fat injections tends to be more expensive than other fillers because of the multiple complex procedure steps.
