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 Dr. Marten |
While a surgeon could supplement a facelift with a chemical peel or laser resurfacing to address the skin surface aging component, that, according to Dr. Marten, does not address the atrophy issue. This, he points out, is literally where fat fills the bill.
 A 45-year-old woman seen before (left) and two years and four months after simultaneous high SMAS facelift, neck lift, forehead lift, lower blepharoplasty and 50 cc of fat injections (right). Colored areas in the center photo show where fat was placed. Surgery performed by Timothy J. Marten, M.D., F.A.C.S. |
Dr. Marten's treatment philosophy is based on fat as an important component of his rejuvenation of the aging face, but an adjunct to, and not a substitute for, his facelift procedures.
"The facelift corrects sagging and redundancy; and the fat restores lost volume and the softness seen in youth," he says. Dr. Marten began combining the facelift and fat injection procedures at the request of his patients who wanted to avoid a second period of recovery associated with a two-stage operation, and when he did so he was stunned at how much better the facelifts were.
"Now, I do fat injections with most facelifts and I feel like I have one hand tied behind my back in instances where patients opt out of the fat injection portion of the procedure," he says.
WHY FAT? The advantage of using the patient's autologous tissue rather than alternative injectable fillers is that fat grafts are not meant to be a temporary solution. "We're grafting living fat cells, so if the graft 'takes,' it's something that the patient isn't going to have to constantly replenish," Dr. Marten says. In addition, fat also contains adult stem cells that produce various important growth factors and messengers, and "fat injections may result in improvement of skin quality mediated through a stem cell effect," Dr. Marten explains.
Fat grafting works best when sagging tissue has been repositioned and redundant tissue has also been removed, according to Dr. Marten. Without correction of sagging and eliminating redundant tissue, he points out, fat grafting can result in an overly large, unaesthetic, and unnatural-appearing overfilled face.
"Simultaneous facelift and fat injections provide a better result than either technique performed by itself. Fat injections are artistically powerful, and they add a healthier, more fit, youthful, sculptural and sensual appearance than if you just did a facelift by itself," he says.
Fat injections are particularly helpful in patients who have problems with poorly supported lower eyelids or support issues in other areas. "Fat injections can lift the area by adding volume-based support," Dr. Marten says.
Fat injections are often more important in patients who are having a secondary facelift than the secondary facelift itself. "I'll touch up the facelift for a patient who seeks secondary improvement, but what really transforms these patients and gives them a stunning result is adding the fat. It provides at least half of the improvement," Dr. Marten says.
