Fat for facial rejuvenation and reconstruction?
FOR ALFREDO Callanta, Empire Centre for Regenerative Medicine medical director, fat grafting is the better and painless way to restore one’s beauty.
How about putting your fat at the lower abdomen and inner thighs into use, especially to fight aging and reconstruct beauty?
The use of fat is fast becoming a choice for people finding ways to enhance their looks. Many studies have been conducted on the regenerative properties of fat; they have found that fat has the highest concentration of regenerative mesenchymal cells than any other tissue in the body.
This is why plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgeon Dr. Alfredo Callanta, medical director of Empire Centre for Regenerative Medicine, is pushing for fat grafting—a less-known method, at least in the country—for facial restoration and reconstruction.
Fat grafting is a procedure to correct a variety of facial—and even breast and buttock—conditions by utilizing fat at the lower abdomen or inner thighs, areas that are deemed resistant to exercise, as fillers to be injected at the areas to be improved.
Callanta, who has handled more than 400 cases since 2004, said aside from facial rejuvenation, fat grafting can also help people who had facial deformities caused by accidents or had them since birth, such as cleft lip. It can also mitigate facial deformities caused by certain disorders, like those of his patient who had Parry-Romberg Syndrome (a rare neurocutaneous syndrome characterized by progressive shrinkage and degeneration of tissues beneath the skin), he added.
Regaining youthful look
The aging process causes the loss of bone, muscle tissue and fat throughout the body. The face is not exempted; wrinkles and sagging skin are results of the loss of facial volume.
Attempts to reverse the aging process have long been pursued by science. One of these is regenerative medicine, an interdisciplinary field of research and clinical applications that seeks to harness the body’s innate ability to regenerate.
Facelifting is the common procedure turned upon when one wants to regain or enhance his/her looks; the procedure entails cutting off excess skin and plastering the remainder across the “smaller face.” But Callanta said facelifting is only focused on tightening the skin, stiffening the patient’s face and expressions. He said people should look into another option, one that is “natural.”
Herein comes the FAMI fat-grafting technique. Callanta said it enables patients to “roll back” the years by using their own fat to restore facial volume through a minimally invasive, nonincisional procedure. Whereas the facelift procedure lasts up to seven hours, Callanta said Fami can be done in an hour. Recovery time is also minimal, with patients being able to get back to their daily activities a day or even hours after, he added. And since there is no surgery, patients are less susceptible to complications, Callanta said. Aside from that, the result can last from three to five years, unlike from the common facelift which lasts only from two to three years, he said.
Aside from facial rejuvenation and reconstruction, fat grafting is also used for breast rejuvenation. Women who aim to achieve fuller, firmer breasts without the use of implants turn to this procedure, said Callanta, resulting in the retention of the natural look and feel of the breasts. There are also no scars and zero chances of complications, such as the loss of sensation around the nipples, he added.
Furthermore, this procedure is being put to use to help breast cancer survivors regain what they lost. Callanta said women who have undergone mastectomy or the surgical removal of one or both breasts can undergo fat grafting to have their breasts reconstructed without having to undergo another invasive surgery.
