Injectable cosmetic treatments are the medical aesthetics success story of the 21st Century. In 2022, over 15 million Americans requested some form of injectable procedure to improve their appearance, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
A large part of that success speaks to the popularity of dermal fillers, gels that selectively add volume to counteract the effects of skin aging.
At Bayview General Medicine, our dermal filler specialists, under the guidance of Dr. Richard Blanchar, help you meet your aesthetic goals by designing a personal treatment plan, including an array of the most popular filler products on the market.
Are dermal fillers right for you? Let’s dig a little deeper into the science behind filler treatments.
Over time, your body loses collagen tissue, one of the support materials in the middle layer of your skin. This loss can take the form of voids into which the outer skin surface falls, or you might suffer from an overall loss of skin volume.
These effects manifest in two general ways. You can think of voids as tiny canyons, and when surface skin collapses into those, you develop lines that start out small, getting deeper and wider as time passes.
Overall, volume loss affects areas like your cheeks and lips. Thick collagen layers that once gave these areas a tight and healthy youthful appearance wane, leaving your skin wrinkled and saggy.
Dermal fillers work on the basis of replacement. Fillers containing synthetic versions of natural compounds found in your body use gel formulations to restore tissue that has faded with age.
Dr. Blanchar uses fine needles to refill collagen valleys, bolstering your skin’s surface and reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Switching to a filler formula with different spreading characteristics, we can add back overall collagen losses, providing a smooth and natural return to youthful skin volume, typically in the cheeks and lips.
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves dermal fillers only for specific uses in patients aged 22 years and older. The FDA also regulates dermal filler formulas to ensure your treatments are safe.
In general, fillers administered by medical professionals following FDA guidelines are a safe and effective way to revise your appearance. The risks associated with filler treatments are similar to those associated with other injection-based treatments, procedures like allergy shots or blood testing, which carry a slightly elevated risk of infection.
Fillers may not be right for you if you are allergic to any of the ingredients in a filler formula or the anesthetic that may be part of the filler formula or treatment. If you have any form of infection near a filler target location, it’s best to wait until the infection clears.
You can find out more about the effects and safety of your dermal filler experience in conversation with Dr. Blanchar and his staff. Book an appointment online or by phone to plan your visit to Bayview General Medicine today.
