Restylane and Other Fillers
Help for Thin Lips and Deep Creases

If you have thin lips or deep creases anywhere on your face or neck, there are many exciting advances in cosmetic surgery to help you. Known as “fillers,” they fill in wrinkles and depressed scars. Many different filler options have come to the forefront over the last few years.

Collagen
The first of these fillers was collagen. Its utility was limited by three factors. First, some people were allergic to it, so pre-testing was necessary in all patients. Second, when injected, it didn’t last long. Third, because this product is made from bovine sources, the recent epidemic of mad cow disease in Europe and Canada has rendered this product less than ideal.

Fortunately, the industry has responded with a plethora of options. In fact, in Europe, which is the acknowledged leader in this area, there are over 70 different options.

Restylane
Among the most popular fillers are what are known as NASHA (non-animal stabilized hyaluronic acid) products. The first of these was made by Medics Corp. of Sweden. It is called Restylane, and it is available in Canada and the United States. Since being introduced it has given birth to a whole new family of products including Perlane, a thicker product for deeper lines, and Restylane, a thinner product for finer lines.

As previously mentioned, these products are made of hyaluronic acid (HA), a material naturally found in the dermis of the skin. Because natural HA doesn’t last long (the body has enzymes that degrade it), Medics Corp. has made a stabilized variety that degrades slowly, and when it degrades, it traps more water, maintaining its correction for an average of nine months in most patients.

One doctor describes using fillers like painting with watercolors and a fine paintbrush. In most patients results are predictable and long lasting, making treatments easy. So there’s no need to live with the ugly unwanted lines of aging any longer.

The “Restylift”
Recently, a new procedure using restylane has been developed by Dr. Steven Mulholland of Toronto. It’s called the “Restylift,” and it lifts the face without using a facelift! The Today Show featured this procedure, and doctors are using it with excellent results.

A New NASHA Filler
A competitor has entered the scene with another NASHA product: Juvederm®. It is marketed by Allergan, the maker of Botox. It’s too early to tell whether it will be as good, but some doctors claim it is.

Long Lasting Fillers - Artecoll, Dermalive and Sculptura
For those who want even more longevity, a group of super-long-lasting products have come on the market. These are Artecoll, Dermalie and Dermadeep. Artecoll is a combination of collagen and PMMA, a material more commonly known as Plexiglas. When this combination is put into the body, the collagen is rapidly degraded leaving the PMMA behind. The body walls of the PMMA leave a long lasting correction. How long? There are reports of as long as 20 years.

A second option is Dermalive, made by DermTech of France. It consists of NASHA and PMMA.

Recently, Sculpture® has been introduced in the United States, and several other long-lasting fillers have also recently become available. There are now many options for doctor and patient—and options are nothing but good.

The future is easy to predict—more and more options will enter the market, and more and more uses will materialize. Doctors will “paint” away wrinkles and age with fillers, just as they do now with lasers. The future is exciting!