Could I benefit from another syringe of Restylane?
I am 4 days out from having my tear troughs filled with 1 syringe of Restylane.
Though some of the hollowness is gone and my cheeks seem a bit fuller, I still see tear
troughs.
I also feel hollow looking under my eyes and towards the outer lower edge.
Would another syringe work?
I hate my under eye wrinkles but as I understand it filler won't help this?
What about towards the hollow outer eye area?
I almost feel like my under eye wrinkles are more pronounced after the filler?
I see my doc next wk.
Thank you for your question!
You’ve asked a simple question: could you benefit from another syringe of Restylane
and you described in your question that 4 days prior, you had Restylane in the tear
trough area and you still have ongoing concerns about the relative hollowness in that area,
as well as, in the outer area.
You are also concerned about wrinkles and so it’s clear that you still feel like there’s
room for improvement.
I could certainly give you my perspective and how I practice in my area.
I’m a board certified cosmetic surgeon and a cosmetic oculofacial plastic surgeon and
we use Restylane and we use Juvederm, we use hyaluronic acid, we also do PRP or platelet-rich
plasma for rejuvenation of the under eye areas pretty much every day of our practice.
And I can tell you that how I approach the application of filler is when I place the
material, I always about two weeks for it to settle.
There’s always room to add and I feel like it’s best to be conservative and I suspect
your doctor probably feels similarly.
And so, although you may feel like there is still room for improvement, you still tread
a fine line where you don’t get more than you need.
It’s easier to add than it is to subtract.
One of the advantages of hyaluronic acid fillers is that you can use an enzyme called hyaluronidase
to dissolve the filler but it has been my general principle to wait for about 2 weeks
and allow the filler to settle in and to blend.
When you are concerned about volume, very often there are ways to address this area
and sometimes it’s directly and sometimes it’s indirectly.
Now what I mean by that is when I look at the eyes, I look at the area that the patient
is concerned with but we always take a step back and look at the whole picture.
And we not only look at the eye and the tear trough area but we look at the eyelid cheek
junction, we look at the submalar area or the cheek area.
And sometimes, when the patient focuses on the tear trough area, they’ll often find
that when we feel the volume below that, it seems to create a balance and a harmony.
So this is art.
This is in a way sculpting and I think there may be an opportunity there.
Now as far as fine lines and wrinkles are concerned, in our practice, we use technology
such as fractional CO2 laser as well as platelet-rich plasma (PRP).
Briefly, platelet-rich plasma is derived from your own blood and it contains growth factors
and healing properties that stimulate collagen.
And it is something that we often combine when we use a hyaluronic acid filler to improve
the quality of the integrity of the skin and restore volume with the hyaluronic acid filler.
So I think that the point that you have an appointment the following week with your doctor,
I think that you should probably review your photos and get a sense of how you improved
and then decide if with your doctor, whether or not additional volume is appropriate.
I always explain to patients that although the word syringe seems like a lot like how
many syringes or one syringe or two syringes but each syringe contains approximately one
milliliter which is basically a baby teaspoon.
So it’s not a lot of volume.
It can make a big difference by strategic placement but in the end, it’s not a lot
of volume.
So when thing settle out, you may need additional material so I think that you’re in the right
track with following up with your doctor and certainly explore what these other concerns
are.
I always explain to my patients that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and when
we do under eye rejuvenation, combination of modalities can often result in a much nicer
outcome such as the use of hyaluronic acid filler or PRP or fractional CO2 laser which
is something we do a lot so we can certainly speak from a lot of experience.
So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck, thank you for your question.