Dark Under Eye Circles
Your eyes are usually the first thing people notice about you, and you may feel that dark under eye circles make you look old. "Common reasons for dark under eye circles may be heredity, thinning skin under the eyes due to aging, sun exposure, or allergies," according to the Mayo Clinic.
Fat grafting is a treatment that involves taking fat from another area of your body, and using it to smooth the under eye area, improving dark under eye circles.
Blepharoplasty
As part of the aging process, the fat on your lower eyelid may bulge forward, creating a shadow on your cheek. A groove can form between your lower eyelid and cheek, which makes this shadow and dark circle more noticeable, due to bulging fat above the groove.
In a blepharoplasty procedure, your surgeon places a small incision on the inside of your lower eyelid, and either removes or repositions the excess fat. Repositioning the excess fat to the groove area can make shadowing less noticeable, and the skin will be smoother, giving you a more youthful look.
Fat Transfer
Your upper and lower eyelid areas seem to retain more fat than other areas of the face, and knowing this makes it easier for your and your surgeon to plan your fat transfer procedure.
In a fat transfer procedure, your surgeon will harvest fat from another part of your body, which is usually the thighs, hips, or belly region. A small liposuction tube is used to harvest the fat, through small skin punctures by a specific needle. Only a small amount of fat is needed for fat transfer procedures. By carefully harvesting the fat, the fat cells are protected from damage. You won't need stitches for the skin punctures, and the punctures should be completely gone in a few weeks.
Once harvesting is complete, excess fluids are removed in a sterile manner, which purifies the remaining fat. Using a blunt needle, your surgeon deposits micro-droplets of fat at a time to the desired under-eye area. Using this technique allows maximal fat survival, since fat cells must have sufficient blood supply in order to "take." If fat is injected in large amounts in one specific area, the fat can be completely absorbed.
Longevity
Before undergoing a fat grafting procedure, talk to your surgeon about how long the fat graft will last. If you still have enhanced volume in the under-eye area after three months, you will probably maintain that volume long-term. However, not all of the injected fat will lead to volume enhancement. If you have an injection of 10cc of fat, only about 25 to 50 percent of this amount would result in long term enhancement. You can place more fat later if necessary, but if you receive an injection of too much fat, it is more difficult to remove.
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