Is Fat Transfer (Fat Grafting) Painful?

Fat transfer in Newport Beach is performed using local anesthesia with sedation or general anesthesia, ensuring your visit is painless and stress-free. After surgery, you will have the option to take oral painkillers or over-the-counter pain medications to help reduce soreness/tenderness in the targeted facial areas or donor regions.

How Many Appointments Will I Need?

Your facial fat transfer journey with Dr. Ackerman in Orange County usually involves four or five visits. In combination with your preliminary consultation, preoperative visit, and surgery date, you will return for several follow-up sessions. These postoperative appointments allow Dr. Ackerman to carefully monitor your healing process and stave off any potential complications.

How Long Until I See Results?

You may lose some initial fat transferred within the first six months after your procedure. The fat that remains after this time is permanent. However, transferred fat acts similarly to normal fat and can be affected by weight fluctuations.

How Soon Can I Travel After Fat Transfer (Fat Grafting)?

Dr. Ackerman’s patients can typically take short car trips right away, but should wait 7 to 14 days before flying or embarking on long-distance road trips.

What Are the Risks Associated With Fat Transfer (Fat Grafting)?

Dr. Ackerman is passionate about patient safety and goes to great lengths to ensure a safe, effective, and rewarding treatment journey. Despite this, all cosmetic procedures come with inherent risks. With facial fat transfer, risks may include: Swelling Bruising Tenderness Infection Lack of fat survival Asymmetry Poor reactions to anesthesia The need for a revision procedure

Fat Transfer (Fat Grafting)

Newport Beach, CA

Restore Volume Naturally

Introduction to Fat Transfer (Fat Grafting)

Synthetic products such as fillers and implants can improve areas that lack attractive or youthful volume, but fat transfer provides volumizing and smoothing results through a completely natural method while also slimming problem areas. Using your own fat, Board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Ackerman in Newport Beach, CA, can shape, define, and refine areas such as the face and buttocks.

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Boris M. Ackerman, MD in dark suit gesturing while speaking during presentation with display screen in background - Fat transfer in Newport Beach, CA

What Is Fat Transfer (Fat Grafting)?

Fat transfer allows Dr. Ackerman to extract fat cells from areas of excess, such as the belly, thighs, or flanks, and use them to enhance hollow-looking facial areas, restoring naturally full and youthful contours. Dr. Ackerman will use liposuction to remove the fat cells, providing a secondary benefit of slimming the donor region. Once the fat cells have been purified and sterilized, they are then introduced into the cheeks, temples, or under-eye region to maximize volume and create a more balanced facial appearance.

Who Are the Best Candidates for Fat Transfer (Fat Grafting)?

To best determine whether you are a candidate for facial fat grafting, Dr. Ackerman will first meet with you for a detailed medical assessment and consultation at his Orange County office. In general, the procedure is suitable for those with the following traits:

In good health
Non-smoker
Realistic expectations
Frustrated by age-related volume loss
Looking to combat hollowed contours in the cheeks, jawline, lips, temples, or under-eye area
Has ample donor fat available in the abdomen, hips, thighs, or flanks

What Are the Benefits of Fat Transfer (Fat Grafting)?

When performed with artistry and precision by Board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Ackerman in Newport Beach, facial fat transfer comes with a wealth of impressive advantages. These include:

Boosts volume and vitality in the cheeks, jawline, lips, temples, and tear troughs
Creates a more inviting, attractive appearance
Increases balance, symmetry, and proportion
Streamlines and slims the donor region
Offers lasting changes for up to five years
Provides a compelling alternative to facial implants and synthetic fillers
Boosts confidence and self-esteem
Can be paired with other facial rejuvenation techniques

Boris M. Ackerman, MD entering office doorway in formal suit carrying documents - Frist step in Newport Beach, CA

How to Begin Your Fat Transfer (Fat Grafting) Journey

The consultation is an important moment for developing your fat transfer treatment plan. Every patient has unique aging needs that should be evaluated before a plan is developed. Dr. Ackerman achieves natural-looking results by combining thorough knowledge of anatomy with a detailed understanding of your wants and desires. During your evaluation, Dr. Ackerman determines:

If you have enough fat to be harvested for transfer
If fat transfer will provide adequate volume in the desired area

What to Expect on the Day of Fat Transfer (Fat Grafting)

Fat transfer is performed using a patient’s own fat, which is taken from areas with excess fatty tissue. Common donor areas include the abdomen, hips, thighs, and back. The fat is harvested via liposuction and then purified to remove excess blood and oil, leaving only intact fat cells. These cells are then gently injected into your treatment area. Dr. Ackerman controls the injection process to create your custom, desired shape.

Boris M. Ackerman, MD consulting with female patient about facial procedure in medical office - Expect in Newport Beach, CA

Facial Fat Transfer

Facial fat transfer is ideal for patients looking to improve volume loss and wrinkles. It is considered a more natural and permanent alternative to synthetic injectables. Facial fat transfer can be used to improve one or more of the following issues:

Volume loss in the cheeks
Hollows under the eyes
An undefined jawline
Wrinkles around the eyes, nose, and mouth

Brazilian Butt Lift

The Brazilian Butt Lift uses fat transfer to enhance the size and definition of your butt, creating a more prominent appearance. BBL is becoming an increasingly popular butt enhancement procedure because the results look and feel natural. You may consider a Brazilian Butt Lift for one or more of the following reasons:

You want your buttocks to look and feel 100 percent natural
You want to increase the size of your butt, but you don’t like the look achieved with implants
You desire a faster and less painful recovery

Combining Fat Transfer (Fat Grafting) With Other Procedures

As an accomplished Board-certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Ackerman performs a wide range of compelling aesthetic solutions to help patients look and feel their best. He can easily pair fat transfer with the following:

A facelift is a gold-standard rejuvenation technique for correcting age-related concerns such as jowls, sagging jawline, drooping cheeks, and nasolabial folds.

Fat Transfer (Fat Grafting) Recovery

Your Guide to Post-Fat Transfer Care

The length of your recovery will vary depending on the type of fat transfer you undergo. In general, you will experience bruising and swelling in the donor area and the injection site. Compression garments are used to minimize swelling following your liposuction. Specialty garments are worn on the buttocks.

Most patients can return to work within 10 days and can resume normal exercise routines within three weeks. Brazilian Butt Lift patients cannot apply pressure to the buttocks for six weeks following the procedure.

How Much Does Fat Transfer (Fat Grafting) Cost in Newport Beach, CA?

Pricing for facial grafting in the Newport Beach area can vary, as each treatment plan is meticulously customized to your unique goals and needs. Factors such as the facial regions addressed and whether your surgery is performed in combination with other rejuvenation techniques will impact your quote. The best way to find out more about pricing is to book your informative introductory session with Dr. Ackerman in Orange County today.

Why Choose Dr. Ackerman?

Dr. Boris Ackerman is an esteemed Board-certified plastic surgeon serving those in and beyond Newport Beach and the greater Orange County area. He uses today’s most advanced techniques to deliver natural-looking results, finely tailored to your unique goals. Dr. Ackerman excels in endoscopic and laser procedures, consistently elevating your results through artistry and meticulous attention to detail. He is a published author on the deep plane facelift technique and invented the Ackerman Facelift Retractor. Additionally, the doctor is an active member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) and the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS).

Dr. Ackerman frequently appears at national and international medical meetings to present his innovative techniques, and he has been featured on TV and in numerous mainstream publications. His world-class practice includes an on-site outpatient surgery center accredited as a QUAD-A facility. This means that it has been recognized for meeting rigorous standards of safety, cleanliness, and patient care.

Fat Transfer FAQ’S

Your facial fat transfer journey with Dr. Ackerman in Orange County usually involves four or five visits. In combination with your preliminary consultation, preoperative visit, and surgery date, you will return for several follow-up sessions. These postoperative appointments allow Dr. Ackerman to carefully monitor your healing process and stave off any potential complications.
Dr. Ackerman is passionate about patient safety and goes to great lengths to ensure a safe, effective, and rewarding treatment journey. Despite this, all cosmetic procedures come with inherent risks. With facial fat transfer, risks may include:
- Swelling
- Bruising
- Tenderness
- Infection
- Lack of fat survival
- Asymmetry
- Poor reactions to anesthesia
- The need for a revision procedure

Patient Reviews

★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Life changing facelift!

Dr. Ackerman did a deep plane facelift, a lip lift, and a brow lift on me. I was about to turn 60 and I figured it would be now or never. I have struggled with a thin face and started having substantial sagging and Fillers were beginning to make me look unnatural and pillowy. I am thrilled to be able to say that I couldn’t be happier.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Amazing Experience

Immediately after seeing 3 other plastic surgeons for consultation, my parents and I knew Dr. Ackerman was the surgeon for us. He has an amazing and trustworthy staff, who we felt very welcomed by. When we met with him so he could give me a consultation for my nose, he was very honest about some of the setbacks that may come with my particular surgery.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Excellent results and experience!

I couldn’t be happier with my experience with Dr. Boris Ackerman and his team! I came to him for a facelift, eyebrow lift, and a revision rhinoplasty, and from start to finish, everything exceeded my expectations. Dr. Ackerman is not only incredibly skilled and precise, but he also has an artistic eye that made all the difference in my results.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Like refreshed versions of themselves

Dr. Ackerman is an exceptional surgeon. I had reviewed his before-and-after photos beforehand, and it was clear that his patients looked like refreshed versions of themselves—not like entirely different people. That was exactly the outcome I wanted, and it’s exactly what I received.

– Linda L
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
That decision exceeded every expectation.

“I absolutely love Dr Boris Ackerman. I cannot recommend my plastic surgeon highly enough. He performed my original facelift when I was 45, and 20 years later, I trusted him again for an updated procedure—and that decision exceeded every expectation.” Mary R

Schedule Your Consultation

To learn more about how facial fat grafting can eliminate age-related hollowness and volume loss and restore a vibrant, energized appearance, please reach out to our friendly team today to book your initial consultation and medical review. Board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Boris Ackerman is standing by to answer your questions and help you get started on the path to achieving your ideal look.

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