Thank you for your question.
You submitted a question without a photo but you state that you had the Vampire Facelift®
done about 1 week ago and that you have extensive bruising, a black eye.
There were lumps in your forehead that you state that was also giving you a permanent
headache.
And so, naturally, you’re asking questions about what this is about at this point.
Well, I can certainly share with you my perspective as someone who performs this procedure.
A little bit of background, I’m a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon and Fellowship-trained oculofacial
plastic and reconstructive surgeon.
I have been in practice in Manhattan and Long Island for over 20 years.
I have been a member of the Vampire Facelift® network of doctors for many years.
In fact, I’ve been a resource for the media whenever, periodically, there’s a need for
commentary or a celebrity does a procedure.
I’ve been doing my best to help explain what the treatment is about because there
are certainly people who are confused about what this is.
So to understand what you’re going through, I just want to have some clarification of
the Vampire Facelift® procedure and differentiate it from PRP alone.
Vampire Facelift® as conceived by Dr. Charles Runels is a procedure where you use PRP, platelet-rich
plasma.
This is derived from your own blood and is injected strategically in different areas
of the face with the purpose of stimulating skin quality and getting this nice glow and
nice cushiony feeling to the skin which makes the skin look more youthful.
With that, is the use of, in the strict definition of Vampire Facelift®, one syringe of the
hyaluronic acid filler which is the choice of the physician performing the procedure.
The point of the hyaluronic acid filler is to add volume in strategic areas and to help
create fullness in areas where there is volume loss.
Of course, there’s a limit with how much you can do with one single syringe and there
is also a synergy between PRP and hyaluronic acid.
Now, when I see this description of extensive bruising, I wonder a couple of things.
I wonder whether the PRP that was injected had a lot more red blood cells in it than
generally done in at least the way we, in differentiation, in the way we prepare PRP.
When you look at PRP that we perform, we use, it’s fairly free of red blood cells and
therefore, it’s relatively clear.
If you can imagine that when this is being injected, if there’s a lot of red blood
cells in there, then it can create bruising and so that’s one possible explanation.
As I said, it’s very unusual for me to be aware of anyone who is a Vampire Facelift®
provider who is following the strict guidelines and have been trained appropriately.
A lot of times, people say they’re doing Vampire Facelift® even though they’re not
part of the network and they have not been trained for that specific procedure and use
the name and just administering PRP in the way they feel they should.
So that’s one thing.
I’m not saying that’s the case in your situation but I don’t know any other details.
The other is about, my concern would be whether or not the injections were traumatic.
PRP is easily injected with small needles.
And therefore, I look at it in comparison with any other injectable like Botox® or
a filler like Restylane.
You’re injecting through a fine needle and when you place PRP, what’s different about
using it when you’re doing a filler is that you can actually cover a wide area with a
single entry point.
So it does surprise me that there’s a fair amount of bruising so if it were to be caused
by the trauma of the placement.
Of course, that’s one potential explanation and it’s not always the doctor’s fault
that someone gets bruising.
The other question to ask yourself is, were you taking any blood thinners.
Were you using aspirin, motrin, ibuprofen, gingko, echinacea, St. John’s wort, vitamin
E?
There are a lot of blood thinners that people don’t realize are blood thinners and that
can also cause a fair amount of bruising.
I think that it’s important that you reach out to your doctor and ask these questions.
You know, besides the arnica cream, there may be some value in the use of warm compresses
just to try to expedite circulation.
But generally speaking, bruising takes time.
I would tell someone, with your situation, is to hydrate, protect your skin with sunblock
and if there are any areas of elevation, just maybe some gentle massage and maybe talk to
your doctor to see if there’s any evidence of a hematoma which doesn’t sound like it
would be but just make sure that there’s no large collections.
So again, it is important to understand more details about your procedure, how it was performed
and whether or not it was a real Vampire Facelift® versus PRP.
Again, this is a discussion with your doctor and of course, move forward.
But I think that, just with nothing, you will eventually get better but I would want you
to at least understand that extensive bruising is not the norm.
It can happen but it’s generally unlikely.
So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question.