Juvederm®, Restylane®, Radiesse®, Sculptra®. Parenthesis lines. “Number 11” lines. Frown lines. You’ve seen it on TV, in the magazines….. Injectable dermal fillers are more popular than ever. The names and the wrinkles they treat seem like alphabet soup and what they can do seem nothing less than a miracle. Can anyone say “Liquid Facelift?”
According to research by Dr. Liu, there will be considerable growth in non-surgical cosmetic procedures (Plast Reconstr Surg 2008). Longitudinal studies of patient photographs have revealed that aging is not simply due to the gravitational descent as tissue collagen and elasticity fail. With age also comes loss of soft tissue volume with an imbalance of volume distribution.
Volume is the new vogue in aesthetic (cosmetic) surgery. Injectable dermal fillers do just that….. they provide volume to the face. Since wrinkles are accentuated by uneven soft tissue volume distribution, restoration of that soft tissue volume will often improve the wrinkle topography of the face. Many patients have noticed that they looked younger when they were heavier. The popularity of injectable fillers have also extended to the young and wrinkle-less. Injectable fillers are used to enhance areas like the lips or improve the shape of the nose (so called “liquid rhinoplasty”).
There are many advantages that fillers have over fat grafts. Fat grafts require harvesting the fat cells from one area of the body, processing the fat and then re-introducing the cells to another part of the body. The challenge with fat grafting is that it is unclear what percentage of the fat cells will survive. Injectable dermal fillers are more predictable in their survival and are pre-packaged so there is no down time.
Patients maybe pre-medicated with a topical numbing medicine and injections are done in the office. The result is an office procedure with minimal discomfort completed in less than 1 hour. Sounds too good to be true? “Caveat emptor (buyer beware).” Injectable dermal fillers have an important role in the plastic surgeon’s armamentarium of procedures but they are not a panacea.
Injectable dermal fillers have become so popular that many cosmetic practitioners will readily inject any patient anywhere. Performance of injectable fillers seems deceptively simple that patients are willing to accept these injections from any practitioner. Celebrities like Priscilla Presley even allowed a “cosmetic surgeon” (turns out he isn’t a licensed physician in the US) to inject industrial grade silicone into her face!
At Liu Plastic Surgery we believe successful aesthetic rejuvenation starts with listening to the patient’s aesthetic concerns and goals. A thorough facial analysis is then performed built on the training and understanding of facial aging and its affects on facial anatomy that comes with 17 years of collective training from the aesthetic fellowship trained plastic surgeons at LPS.
Facial aging is a combination of both anatomic changes and volumetric changes. Therefore any successful rejuvenation must incorporate and harmoniously balance components of both. Injectable fillers and aesthetic (cosmetic) surgery are not substitutes but rather complementary procedures.
A patient with thick neck bands and jawline laxity and jowls is not going to benefit from injectable dermal fillers. Another patient with midface deflation and a clean neckline could benefit from injectable dermal fillers or surgical facial rejuvenation or both.
At Liu Plastic Surgery, your visit starts with a consultation with one of our plastic surgeons who have advanced fellowship training in facial injectable procedures. Your plastic surgeon will listen to your concerns and analyze your face focusing on the facial anatomy that is causing the area of concern and providing you with an individualized aesthetic goal that may included injectable fillers, aesthetic (cosmetic) surgery or both. The plastic surgeons at LPS will give you a thorough and honest assessment to see if the area of concern is amenable to injectable fillers . If you are a candidate, injections are done at the time of consultation by the plastic surgeons themselves.
To see if you are a candidate for injectable fillers contact Liu Plastic Surgery at 650-539-4808 or info@liuplasticsurgery.com.
Jerome Liu, MD and Tom Liu, MD are fellowship trained plastic surgeons specializing in facial rejuvenation, facelift, blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery), rhinoplasty (nose job), breast augmentation (breast implants), mastopexy (breast lift), mommy makeover, abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) and liposuction in Northern California. Dr. Jerome Liu and Dr. Tom Liu operate at multiple locations throughout the San Francisco Peninsula and South Bay offering convenient service for the communities of Los Altos, Palo Alto, Los Gatos, Campbell, San Jose, Almaden, Saratoga, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Burlingame, Hillsborough, San Mateo, Belmont, San Carlos, Atherton, Menlo Park, Fremont, Morgan Hill, and Santa Cruz.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFillers have been a nice adjunct treatment for facial rejuvenation, sometimes used in conjunction with facelift surgery and are used to eliminate deep wrinkles, and enhance the shape of the lips.
ReplyDeletedermal fillers Dublin