So today we'll talk about dermal fillers. Dermal fillers are sort of a category of injectable
that's often confused with things like Botox, which is actually a separate category
Dermal fillers are things you heard about probably like
some commonly known brand names such as Restalyne,
Juvederm, Radiesse, Voluma
There's really a large number of these different fillers and they're really used for slightly
different purposes
but the thing to keep in mind is that an general, what they're trying to do is
really just fill an area that has been depressed over time
so typically the patients I see for dermal fillers are patients for whom
there is a specific
line or specific area of the face that's lost some volume over time.
Very commonly, these are the nasolabial folds that
which are the marionette line areas at the corners of the mouth
sometimes people have specific lines
like a line that has been etched here over years of
constant frowning or just from age
or etched lines on the side of the eyes where the crow's feet are
in those cases we can use dermal fillers, and really what those are
it's an injectable that really goes into the area,
just lifts up and plumps up the skin so that those lines are really not as
noticeable as
before. In my experience it really doesn't completely disappear the lines but it really
helps make them a little bit softer and so i think that's nice because it looks
a little natural
and as the key with all aspects of plastic surgery and with injectables,
the key I think is to be conservative and really just try to get a nice natural
correction and
not to overdo it. I think we've all seen people who had
too much filler injected and it doesn't look good or natural
So, I think the goal really should just be to aim for a certain improvement
Best candidates for the procedure are patients who have a very specific area of the face
they think they would like improved
very often my patients will come to me and say specifically "yeah this really
bothers me
or this specific line, can you do something about this?" and they really kind of thought
about it and looked at their face and decided where it is they think
they can get improvement. Sometimes patients will come to me and just ask me to take a look
and see what I think is best, and I'm happy to do that too.
Working with patients together to decide what would be the good areas for
improvement - that can lead to good results. The procedure itself is pretty straightforward,
it's an injectable, just like Botox, and so first
I put on a numbing cream. In my case I use a triple anesthetic
numbing cream that makes things more comfortable for the
patient and then give some time for that to absorb
into the skin and make things more comfortable and then really just going in and very
carefully
injecting the filler into that area. I use a combination of a serial puncture
versus a threading technique. It's sort of my own thing that
I think works a little bit better, but
every surgeon and
doctor who does this has their own technique, and so that's what's worked well for me
It takes about a half hour on average depending on the number of areas
that need to be injected. I think it's important to take your time and do things in a
careful fashion. After the procedure, what you can expect
the filler does swell a little bit. Usually bruising is very uncommon,
but swelling is common
Usually swelling for a couple of days, and after a couple of days the swelling will come down
Initially in the first few days it can feel a little bit raised.
It can look a little red, firm, or bumpy
I always tell patients it's nothing to worry about. Just go ahead and ice that area after a few days
especially that first week, all that swelling comes down and things soften up quite a bit
at that point, if the patient still has a little bit of firm areas, I just have them do a little bit of massage,
and I have a special technique that I teach them do
so overall I think with all those
ideas in mind, you can get really nice results with
fillers and it's a very straightforward procedure to do.