Will Fat Grafting Of My Face Go Away?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I had fat grafting to my face and I love it. I am three weeks out and I have noticed already that some of the fullness has started to go down. I would prefer it to stay this way and I don’t want it to go down. How much of the fat will stay and how will I know when the result is finally stable? I don’t think my doctor overfilled at all. And the first two weeks I looked amazing, but things have changed over the past week and it is not nearly as full now as it once was. 🙁

A: Fat  grafting is a wonderful technique for a variety of facial enhancement issues but it plagued by unpredictability of fat graft survival. A good guideline for the amount of volume retention after fat grafting is to wait at least until 6 weeks after the procedure. Generally the success of most fat grafting results is seen by then by ultimately a final judgment should not be done until 3 months after the procedure.  That is also the time when fat grafting can be repeated if necessary. At just three weeks after the procedure you will very likely lose more fat, it is just a question of how much more over what period of time.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana