FAT TRANSFER Q & A!

David Hartman: So, hi, I'm David Hartman from Fine Art Skin and Laser, plastic surgeon, double Board certified. And we're going to talk today about fat transfers. What a remarkable procedure to take fat from places where we don't want it and put it where we do want it. Typically, we like to have fat in places that will make us look younger. So we could put some fat where we're starting to lose fat in our face, our lips, breasts, butt, and take it from places where we don't want it, such as tummy, or love handles, lateral thighs, medial thighs, sometimes under the arms or bra fat. Today, we can do what's called structural fat grafting, where we harvest fat in a very high definition, sculpting manner with a device by MicroAire, which is a powered fat harvester, and then we can actually put it into, say, the breasts in a way that augments them, makes them rounder and enhances the cleavage, for instance, gives better profile, but still is a very natural breast.

It moves naturally. There's no concern about an implant having a problem 10 years later. There's no concern about rejection in your body because it's your own fat. And this procedure is something we do very comfortably in the office, takes about three hours. And when we do these in our office, the patient is awake, very comfortable through the whole procedure and able to do sort of normal, low impact work out the next day. Generally, you're going to see a half cup size to a cup size of enhancement and in the face, it can restore five to 10 years of youth. The beauty of fat grafting is, unlike fillers that are hyaluronic acid fillers, fat, whatever's going to survive the first couple of weeks, which is sort of the critical couple of weeks, will last forever.

In fact, it's got a better longevity than the fat that was in your face to begin with because we harvest it from places where it's very, very stable. That fat is the hardest fat to lose, like the little tummy fat or the lateral thigh fat, you just can't lose. So that fat retains its donor site characteristics. So when we put it in places like the breast, for instance, or the face, it'll be the last fat you ever lose. We don't have to go to sleep to do this. It's a very comfortable little twilight, maybe a little Xanax. And then it's just a lidocaine cream that we put on. We use some PRO-NOX, which is that nitrous oxide, that laughing gas, which feels really euphoric, feels really good. And you that's a self-administered nitrous oxide. And then we use what's called tumescent anesthesia, which is a diluted lidocaine solution.

And with that, it's a very, very comfortable procedure. You might even take a little bit of a nap in that. Listen to music. We have a nice conversation. And two, three hours later, you're up and walking around, almost like nothing happened. Price for something like this is sort of in the five to $15,000 range, depending on how many places we harvest from and how many places put it back. But again, it's a double procedure, so it's not only the augmentation, but it's also the advantage of sculpting out where you don't want fat. If we end up doing it a second time, it's about half as much time and half as much price.

So who's a good candidate for a fat transfer? Our typical clients are 28 to 65, and the bulk of them are in their thirties. These are women, generally, who had a baby or two. And from that, they end up with some stubborn fat that they can't get rid of. And then some deflation of their breasts. When we do it, because the patient's awake, we'll have them participate in the placement. So we hand them a mirror when we're about two thirds done and then have them give us their feedback about where they want some more or when we want to stop. It's a procedure that can be extremely customized. That's the beauty of it. A fat transfer is something that we do very comfortably awake in the office. Consultation is important to really assess what the need is and what your desires might be.