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New Skin Fillers For Facial Lines
in Bethesda Maryland - Washington DC Metro Area
The use of fillers is becoming more popular for a number of reasons, the main one being “improved” products. One only has to review the history of fillers, going back in time to when paraffin (liquid wax) was injected with “marvelous” results and eventual complications, to realize that the actual bulk of the injection played a major role, as did the antigenicity of the product. Silicone Gel was also used with subsequent migration and other complications. When a foreign body is placed in tissue, it must have adequate soft tissue around it to create fibrosis to protect it from movement or drift.
Over the past few years, the trend has been to make injectable fillers. Collagen was popular in the past, and newer products are currently used to correct facial lines.
Radiesse is an injectable version of an old familiar molecule, hydroxy apatite; it has no allergenic properties. Radiesse is an effective and safe filler for deep facial lines in the nasolabial area, frown lines on the forehead and to enlarge the lips. Radiesse has a life span of at least two to three years.
The injection technique is slightly different in that small “threads” of the solution should be injected so that the liquefied droplets of material can become individualized as smaller isolated particles that act together to plump up the tissue as desired. When using this product, one must be careful to inject it below the superficial dermis, as it has the capacity to create permanent (white) beads just underneath the epidermis if this is done. In the lips, for example creating two or three “lines” of material will nicely build up the vermillion border, but should be done in a high subdermal plane rather than an intradermal one.
Restylane, Juvederm, Perlane Plus, hyaluronic acid-based fillers, also come in three levels of viscosity. These include Restylane, Restylane, and Perlane. The rules for injection are much the same, you must be careful not to inject fine lines with the more viscous solution because beading or “bumps” will occur and they are not as easy to eliminate. These products last approximately seven to nine months.
Fat Grafts have varied in popularity over the past 15 years. There is no doubt that autologous fat tissue implanted in another site of the body can remain as live tissue, thus filling our depressions and creases. There are specific techniques that can improve take of the grafts.
Fat grafts are placed under a crease or depression for improvement of wrinkles, facial enhancement, enlargement of lips and breasts and rejuvenation of hands in older people. Fat is useful for fine lines in my experience, and rejuvenation of the aging face is not really possible in many cases without the use of fat as a filler. Additionally, there are other fillers available such as Hylaform, Artecoll, Alloderm, Soft Gore which are used in specific indications.