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Facelift | Laser Skin Resurfacing | Chemical Peels | Skin Rejuvenation | Rhinoplasty | Browlift | Eyelid Surgery | Blepharoplasty | BOTOX® Cosmetic | Facial Liposuction | Otoplasty | Injectable Fillers
Many patients misunderstand fillers and sometime confuse them with Botox. Fillers are substances that are injected under the skin or lips to plump up the tissues. For the lips, fillers can provide an increase in lip size as well as enhancing the definition. They can also plump out "lipstick lines" that develop in many female patients.
For skin wrinkling, fillers are usually used for nasolabial folds (laugh lines) or bigger, deeper wrinkles. Fillers can also be used to augment facial anatomy to make bigger cheeks, chin or to fill in defects and scars.
Fillers are injected through small needles. Dr. Bender goes to great lengths to make this procedure painless. All patients are first treated with numbing cream on the areas to be injected. If the lips are to be injected, a numbing cream is first placed, then several small dental injections of local anesthetic are given to totally numb the lips and related areas for a truly painless .
The filler is then injected in the lips, wrinkles or folds. The actual injection only takes minutes. Ice is placed on the lips immediately after the injections. The lips generally swell somewhat but most patients are able to return to work the next day. Rarely, some patients experience more significant swelling. For this reason, a first time filler patient may want to be treated on a Friday. It is also a good idea to refrain from aspirin or drugs that delay clotting for 1-2 weeks to decrease bruising when injecting fillers.
Dr. Bender recommends that you return in two weeks to check the result and make sure everything is symmetric. Occasionally a touch up may be performed at the follow up appointment. It is important to view filler injection as a sculpting process and in some cases multiple appointments are required to provide that special result that patient’s desire.
In the lips, the filler is used to enhance the natural lip outline and definition that is lost with aging. It is also used to plump the lips to actually make them bigger and to show more of the red lip. Careful attention to detail allows very natural enhancement. Patients that have been overdone are quite obvious. Many factors go into making an esthetic lip. Just making lips bigger is not the answer and can look quite fake. For most patients a single syringe of filler is adequate to plump both lips.
For nasolabial folds (laugh lines) the filler is injected to plump the fold. Patients must understand that the fold will not be totally eliminated (actually adults would look unnatural without any smile lines). Instead of being eliminated, the fold is blunted. The fold is actually a valley of tissue and the filler fills in the valley making it less pronounced. For most patients with moderate to deep nasolabial folds (smile lins) a syringe of filler for each side is needed.
Fillers can also be used to fill in the lines that are underneath the lower eyelids called the "tear troughs". This area makes patients look hollow and by injecting fillers, it plumps out the depression and improves the "dark circle" look.
FIllers can also be used in some areas that are not as well known like the earlobes. As we age, our earlobes lose their youthful volume and also become wrinkled. A simple filler injection can restore youthfulness to aging earlobes.
There is no correct answer to this question as each patient metabolizes fillers differently. Research has shown fillers such as Restylane lasts up to 12 months. Radiesse has been shown to last over a year. Fillers may not last as long in areas of increased movement such around the mouth. Different fillers will last different periods of time in different patients. One thing for sure is that the newer fillers last considerably longer than the first generation of fillers.