Fat transfer to the face moves fat from one part of the body to the face. It happens in order: consultation, anesthesia, harvest, preparation, placement and recovery.
Planning a fat transfer
The fat transfer consultation
Ask what the transfer is meant to change in your face and where the fat would be placed. Ask which donor area is proposed and why. Ask whether the surgeon can show you photographs of their own fat transfer patients.
Filler, implant or your own fat for the cheeks?
Fat is one of several ways to treat the cheeks. A plastic surgery society blog asks how plastic surgery can rejuvenate your cheeks and is a general starting point for comparing them.
Harvest and placement in the operating room
Anesthesia for the donor area and face
Anesthesia comes before the harvest. Ask which kind is planned for the donor area and the face, who gives it, and what to do the night before.
Harvest
The surgeon takes fat from the donor area. Ask where the access points will be and what that area will look like afterward.
Preparation and placement
The harvested fat is prepared, then placed in the face. Ask how the fat is prepared and how the surgeon decides where each placement goes. Ask how the surgeon compares the two sides before finishing.
Healing at two sites
Caring for the donor area and the face
Ask how the donor area and the face are each cared for in the first days, which activities to pause, and which symptoms should prompt a call.
Injection safety questions
Ask the surgeon how they approach the safety of facial injection. A review titled Facial Injectable Fillers in Aesthetic Medicine covers clinical applications and safety strategies for injectables more broadly.
Comparing donor area and placement plans
Decide which donor area and which placement you want to discuss, then ask each surgeon the same questions. The society's page on cheek augmentation is a broader reference on the cheek options. A licensed surgeon should judge your own case.