Will dermal fillers change the way I look?

At one of my cosmetic clinics last Saturday, in which I saw some of my favourite patients, the question of fillers came up several times – how DO fillers work?

Many of my patients are professional women who work- from accountants to nurses, to IT professionals and dentists. They want to feel more confident about themselves, while not proclaiming to the world that they’ve had “treatment” or for people to look at them “funny”.

When I talk to these ladies about fillers, the recurrent theme is: “I don’t want anything that’ll change the way I look.”

So. How DO fillers work? Will they change the way you look inherently? Will you end up with DUCK LIPS? A SIMIAN MONKEY lower face with overfilled smile lines? A CATLIKE upper face with overfilled tear troughs?

These are valid fears so today, I want to give you an example of a lady in her late 40s that I’ve begun some full face filler work on.

Some key points first:

1. Fillers work to restore natural volume and lift to areas of the face that have begun to lose this volume due to ageing, illness and weight loss.

2. Ageing isn’t just a skin issue; a 20 year old can be wrinkled, and yet look relatively young. A 50 year old can have a smooth unlined face and still not look 20. Why?

3. Unlike anti-wrinkle injections, which work by weakening muscle action such that over time and repeated use, dynamic wrinkles decrease, static wrinkles grow fainter and skin smoothes out, filler works mainly by increasing volume, support and providing lift to drooping skin. It also attracts water to the area, smoothing out fine wrinkles and often, stimulating new collagen production.

4. Unlike anti-wrinkle treatments, which last 3-4 months, fillers generally are dearer but last longer- 4-6 months usually for lips; 9-12 months or more for cheeks and jaws, upto a year or more under the eyes and so on!

Filler may be used to define a sagging jawline, or jowling; it may be used for thinning bone and skin around the ear; the temples; it can be used to replace volume lost in the cheeks, giving deep smile lines, drooping mouth corners and eye bags.

So. Back to the question. Will a filler change the way you look? In short, no. My main aim is to help you look refreshed, less tired and to look GOOD for your age.

The following are some examples:

Lady in her early 50s. Had 2mls of thick filler into her cheeks with reduction of her nasolabial folds (smile lines) while still looking like herself. Has had 0.5ml to the drooping mouth corners.

She also had 0.5ml to her chin to balance the chin better against the rest of her face.

This next lady in her late 40s is not Caucasian, and had flattening of the area of her cheeks near her nose causing eye bags, circles and prominent smile lines. She has some inherent asymmetry in her face which was minimally corrected.

She had a total of 2mls of thick filler to- her mid cheek area, the area under her eyes and the area near her crows feet. I suggested she hold off antiwrinkle treatment to the crows till review at 2 weeks as wrinkles under the eyes often improve dramatically with some filler. We saw just that immediately after treatment and I expect that to improve a bit more.

In summary, a little filler can go a long way in the right hands and add subtly to your looks without it being obvious to anyone but you, and whoever you choose to inform!

Any questions? email us at contact@skinessentials.com.au

Hope to see you in a clinic soon!