Like your face and body, your hands also undergo the process of ageing. After your face, your hands are the next place to reveal your age. However, the face is privileged and gets the gold star treatment - day creams, night creams, sun-blocks, luxury facials, fillers, Botox, etc. The hand however is often ignored even though a few of us use a special hand cream or use gloves while doing the dishes. But is that enough?
Ageing in the hands occurs at multiple levels, the earliest sign being lack of moisture and appearance of fine lines. The skin wrinkles and some lines are converted into deep creases particularly on the joints of the fingers. Loss of fat and tissue makes the skin thinner, to the extent that it appears skeletonised.
Physiologically, women are more affected by this process, as they hate the appearance of prominent veins on their hands. Plus, hollowness in the hand is not aesthetically pleasing, so it all adds up to the level of concern. Even men are beginning to get bothered by it, as more men today are interested in taking care on how they look and how their appearance makes an impact.
Today, medical science has advanced enough and is giving us the opportunity to take care of our body and beyond. Structural fat grafting is an advanced technique to rejuvenate the hand at multiple levels.
With fat grafting, you can transfer fat from an abundant area to a poor area. Through Liposuction, fat is extracted from areas where there is excess fat, such as the abdomen, flanks, thighs etc. and then transferred to the area that is in need of fat.
Specialised cannulas are used to collect fat of different textures. After harvesting the fat, it is categorised into Macro fat, Micro fat and Nano fat. Macro fat is enriched with adipose tissue and stromal vascular factors that are injected into deeper planes of the hand. This gives volume and fills out spaces in between the bones of the hand. This type of fat is easily accepted by the underlying musculature of the hands.
Microfat is smaller particles of fat that are injected into a superficial plane under the skin. This helps to increase thickness of the skin and reduces wrinkles. It also helps produce neocollagen tissue to support the ageing skin. This fat can be carefully placed over the superficial veins, so they look less prominent. It requires great expertise and experience to prevent complications.
Nanofat is specially prepared fat cells. These are emulsified adipose cells that carry specialised stem cells of the fat called Adipose derived stem cells. Platelet Rich Plasma can be added to these fat grafts to encourage collagenisation. Nano fat cells are injected very superficially in the skin of the dorsum of the hand. This improves the texture and fine lines of the hand.
Fat grafting is indeed the future of rejuvenation and augmentation. It is being used to expand/increase volume in desired areas and is also used to mould new contours, such as abs, biceps, chest etc. The advantage is not just natural; the approach also means no scars, no cuts, natural cleavages and butts and early recovery. It’s a minimal invasive procedure and is as natural as it can get.
With thanks to Dr Sanjay Parashar, Consultant Plastic Surgeon.