This title is a bit bombastic but… far from being false! Although lipofilling – this technique of reinjecting autologous fat – can be carried out alone, it has proven to be an excellent addition to numerous aesthetic surgery techniques, particularly the face. Focus on this procedure that rejuvenates, restores volume, and, as a bonus, visibly improves skin quality.
How does your face age?
If you look carefully at a young face, our morphology is unique – round, square, elongated, more or less salient bones, more or less delicate features, etc. – but some common features emerge: radiant, supple, and well-hydrated skin with a fine texture. There is enough subcutaneous fat giving it the typical rounded aspect of young faces with beautiful cheekbones, and perfectly working muscles that hold up the face.
With time, the aging process begins: skin, fat, muscles, and bone are affected!
More precisely, our body becomes lazier, it tires and is quite simply damaged:
- Skin aging: our skin produces less and less collagen and elastin. The fibers deteriorate. There is also a decrease in hyaluronic acid, which ensures skin hydration and support. The skin is less supple, less elastic, and drier, promoting the appearance of expression lines, particularly in the areas of the face that move a lot and/or where the skin is thin: around the eyes, on the forehead, between the eyebrows but also around the mouth (smile lines).
- Bone aging as there is bone loss
- Muscle aging, which is the result of muscles not totally relaxing. Over time, they remain contracted, even tense, without ever really relaxing, thus accentuating some wrinkles or unattractive expressions. This is the case of the orbicularis oris muscle, which causes the corners of the lips to sag.
- Finally, this mild but constant muscle contraction changes the distribution of the fat, especially as we also observe a loss of fat with age. Hollows form in places, other parts get fatter and as a result of gravity, the facial contours blur.
It is the combined aging of each of these 4 phenomena that gives the impression (which it is not) that the face is sagging and that wrinkles and furrows form.
Some factors are compounding: sun, pollution, lifestyle, and generally anything that causes the oxidation of our cells such as free radicals. Genetics, as well as ethnic origin also have their say.
Lipofilling: with which facial surgery?
A facelift is resolutely the facial surgery we think of when we wish to restore youthfulness and visibly take a few years off. The women I see in my office undergo this procedure on average between 45 and 50 years.
The techniques of this procedure have advanced considerably: we are far from the lifts that pulled the skin and modified the facial features, including the eyes. All this is ancient history.
On the contrary, a facelift today works on all the components of facial aging, that is to say, the skin that is redraped (and not pulled), but also tightening of the muscles… and the volume. It is the same when we carry out eyelid surgery: the eye can be sunken in its orbit, like an inverted V. Removing the excess skin alone is not enough and above all does not guarantee the good evolution of the procedure: there is not enough fat for a natural, harmonious result.
This is where lipofilling comes in.
An entirely natural technique for a harmonious, lasting result
Thus, to restore volume and achieve an even more natural result with facial aesthetic surgery, I recommend combining it with lipofilling, especially as it visibly improves the quality of the skin, which is plumped and much more radiant.
Lipofilling (or autologous fat transfer, fat grafting…) is the long-lasting version of hyaluronic acid injections to fill hollows and rebalance facial volume, redefine the contours, and thus play on the shadows and light for even more subtle results, particularly when combined with a facelift or blepharoplasty. And all that thanks to your own fat.
I take adipose tissue from the tummy, thighs, or hips (even the knees) and, after centrifugation and purification of the fat, reinject it.
This « finishing touch » really helps enhance the process of rejuvenating the face, whether it is a facelift or eyelid surgery. Better hydrated as well, the skin will be all the more beautiful: more radiant, suppler, and plumper.
By combining facial surgery and lipofilling, we can achieve harmony; in a way, it is the icing on the cake for a natural, elegant result just like the vision I have of aesthetic surgery, and more broadly that of aesthetic surgery in France.
Any questions? Would you like to make an appointment for a consultation with Doctor Rajao in Paris? Contact our team, we are at your service.