Dermal Fillers
Dermal and soft tissue fillers are second only to Botox injections in popularity, with over 2 million injections being performed in the US last year. This popularity is even more remarkable given that few of these products were even being used in this country until 15 years ago. Fillers have given us a way to restore the volume losses associated with aging, particularly around the mouth, eyes, and lips. The relative ease of use, safety, and low costs of these treatments has accounted for their enormous popularity.
Dermal Fillers Overview
What We Use
We utilize primarily hyaluronic acid based products (Juvederm, Restylane, Voluma, Volbella, and others) in our practice, the most widely used injectables in the US. We have been impressed by the ease of use, effectiveness, and lack of complications we have seen with these products. We continually evaluate new products as they come on the market, and are exploring new ways to use them. However, we sometimes warn patients about being too anxious about seeking “the newest treatment they saw on TV” as we have seen some of these injectables greeted with great fanfare (and marketing budgets!) only to disappear from the market after a few years because of problems or lack of effectiveness. We want to make sure any treatment we use on our patients is proven to be both safe and effective.
Treatment Areas
- Nasolabial folds (“parentheses” around the mouth)
- Labiomental folds (“marionette” or “puppet” lines around the mouth)
- Lips
- Cheeks
- Forehead creases
- Periorbital region (hollows under the eyes)
- Depressed scars
How We Do It
Patients interested in dermal fillers are first seen for a consultation where we will evaluate your face, take photographs, discuss the areas to be treated and the amount of improvement you can expect. If you are interested in undergoing injections, we will schedule these to be done in our office at a convenient time.
The areas to be treated will be first anesthetized with a topical anesthetic or nerve block injections. We then chill the area with a cool pack to decrease the possibility of bruising. The product is then injected through a very fine needle into the areas where increased fullness is desired. Afterwards, we will have you continue to apply a cool pack to decrease swelling. The entire procedure takes 30-45 minutes.