What to do about weight-loss related facial volume loss
Have you noticed facial aging after weight loss and wonder if there are some ways to achieve a more youthful, fuller cheek appearance without regaining weight? Whether your weight loss occurred after surgery such as a gastric bypass or lap band procedure or from diet and exercise alone, there are several options that may help you. Injection of fillers such as restylane, juvederm, or radiesse can be done in the office. Alternatively, a fat grafting procedure can use your fat cells to more permanently augment the lost facial volume. Another option would be a cheek implant.
I've found that with even modest amounts of weight loss, significant changes can be seen with regard to facial appearance. Many patients report how that although their body looks better after loosing weight, they don't like how it results in a deflated, more aged appearance in their face.
With diet and exercise this patient lost over 100 pounds and was concerned with the extensive facial tissue sagging that resulted. Given the extent of the patient's problems, a facelift, necklift, browlift, and blepharoplasty procedure was combined with a volume-enhancing fat grafting procedure to improve her overall appearance.
You can see that lifting procedures on their own would be limited in how they could rejuvenate the patient's facial appearance. By improving the facial volume at the same time I was able to transition the facial concavities into more youthful appearing facial convexities.
This is another patient with weight loss related facial aging. Mainly you can see the extensive flattening of her cheeks and more prominent lower eyelid fat pads. By performing a facial fat transfer procedure along with a conservative lower and upper eyelid blepharoplasty, I was able to markedly improve the patient's facial appearance. You can see how a more full, convex cheek and lower eyelid is seen after her procedure.
