Breast fat grafting is an advanced cosmetic and reconstructive procedure that uses your own body fat to enhance breast shape, restore lost volume, and create natural-looking breast results. This technique removes unwanted fat from areas such as the abdomen, thighs, or hips through liposuction and transfers purified fat cells into the breasts.
Dr. MacLennan has been using this technique in her practice for many years. She began by offering fat grafting to her breast reconstruction patients, who often needed a little more padding over an implant or improvement of a contour problem. Over the years, the indications for fat grafting have grown, and it’s now a useful technique for many problems, including non-implant breast augmentation for very small breasts.
Am I a Candidate?
Fat grafting is particularly helpful for filling the upper breast slope in women who are empty or hollow in this area. This has a particular benefit for women who have had treatment for breast cancer or who have had their implants removed. Fat grafting can be done in conjunction with breast lifts and implants, and in a few cases, can even be done without an implant in women who simply want a very small increase in breast size without implants.
Of course, in order to be a good candidate for fat grafting, you must have enough fat to borrow, and unfortunately, some women are very thin and don’t have enough to borrow. For those who do, the contour improvement from liposuction is a nice benefit. We’re careful to remove only as much fat as the donor area can spare.
If you’re considering increasing your breast size with fat alone, it’s important to have realistic expectations about how much volume you can gain. The best candidates are those with good breast shape and skin tone, who are looking to increase breast size by one-half to one cup size. If you’re interested in a larger size or have sagging tissue, we may need to discuss breast implants or other options. Remember that women often need more than one stage of fat grafting to reach their desired results.
How is Breast Fat Grafting Done?
The fat grafting procedure is typically performed as an outpatient procedure using local or general anesthesia, depending on the extent of treatment. The procedure begins with liposuction of the areas with extra fat cells. This is commonly the abdomen, thighs, hips, flanks, or the “muffin top” area. Small incisions are made so a thin cannula can collect body fat while preserving the integrity of healthy fat cells.
The fat is then purified, prepared for reinjection, and carefully placed back into your tissue using small cannulas to ensure it is evenly distributed within your existing tissues. This is the most important part of the procedure and requires careful placement of small ribbons or dots of fat exactly where needed. This allows the fat injections to plump the tissue without creating lumps.
What is Recovery Like?
Recovery from fat transfer to the breasts alone is fairly simple. The incisions are very small, and the main recovery is the soreness from the liposuction where the fat is removed, and swelling in the breasts.
Most patients return to light daily activities within several days and resume many regular activities within one to two weeks. More strenuous exercise and heavy lifting should be avoided for several weeks to protect the transferred fat cells as they establish a healthy blood supply.
If you’re having fat grafting along with another procedure, remember that there may be recovery guidelines for the other procedure as well. Some of the transferred fat may naturally be reabsorbed by the body during healing, while the remaining fat becomes a lasting part of the breast tissue.
FAQs About Natural Breast Augmentation (Fat Grafting)
What Are The Risks?
Where Do You Get The Fat?
Is Fat Grafting Safe?
Request Consultation
Fat grafting is a versatile tool in plastic surgery, and Dr. MacLennan has extensive experience and training in advanced techniques. Let us answer your questions by calling Mountain Lake Plastic Surgery at (802) 231-4284.
