Injectable Dermal Fillers

Along the lines of Botox, Dermal Fillers offer the fountain of youth and has become ever increasingly popular. No anesthesia or downtime is required offering fillers as an easy alternative to major surgery to maintain a youthful look. Botox is different than fillers, as it is used to immobilize the muscle that it is injected into, making wrinkles not form from nonmovement. Fillers plump up areas where the firm underlying collagen tissue has gotten weakened by age. Some fillers are man made and some are naturally made by animals or humans, each having pros and cons.

Collagen is the framework of fibers in your skin that hold your skin firm, keep it elastic and maintain moisture and keep your youthful appearence. As you get older the collagen breaks down in your skin leading to sagging, wrinkles and an aged appearance. Topical collagen moisturizers can treat only the surface of the skin which can help maintain moisture in the skin, but doesn't replace lost collagen lost.

Collagen fillers are injected to give back natural collagen in the skin. It can make your skin look younger and reduce fine lines and wrinkles. CosmoDerm, CosmoPlast, Autologen, Cymetra, and Fascian are all human based collagen fillers used. Zyderm and Zyplast are made from cow skin. To keep the lasting effect you may need two to four injections a year to keep the treatment lasting. Just like natural collagen, injected collagen breaks down as well.

Artefill or PMMA microspheres - Polymethylmethacrylate beads are small manmade polymers that are non-biodegradable, and compatible with the body, to pose a low risk of an allergic reaction. Artefill is injected with a collagen made from cows underneath the skin. It is mostly used for nasolabial folds and has been deemed by many in the medical field to be unsafe used in any other area. Since Arefill are tiny plastic spheres, they can only be removed surgically, but people asked after five years are 90% satisfied and it has maintained their natural look appearance.

Facia is a thin but strong fiberous structure that covers muscle and is found just below the skin. If you have cut raw chicken for food prep, the whitish thin tissue covering the muscle is facia to give you an idea. Facia can be harvested from your own body or from a deceased doner and implanted surgically or injected. The drawback of fascia is that within a year the body will absorb the facia.

Fat injections are popular since using your own body fat gives a security that their will not be any allergic reaction. The body naturally absorbs some of the fat once injected, up to 40-60%. Six months after the procedure will usually result in the amount that will stay from the treatment. Since the body absorbs the fat, more fat is injected than needed, but also can make the area look unnatural until the absorbsion occurs. This leads to numerous smaller injections to get to the desired result, and assuring a look that doesn't look abnormal from having too much.

Hyaluronic Acid Injections are popular products such as Juvederm, Perlane, Restylane that use a natural material made in the body to ad fullness to the skin. Their is a very slight risk of an allergic reaction and one of the most cost effective ways to get a filler. Hyaluronic Acid Injections can come in a thin gel like form that is thin and can flow more consistantly into the area underneath the skin, or a thick jello like form that keeps it's structure to fill in certain specific area. Hyaluronic Acid binds with water to maintain the fuller plump look of skin. Juvederm, Perlane, Restylane treatments last about a year so need to be repeated to achieve the desired result.

Poly-L-lactic acid or famously known as Sculptra, is used to replace lost facial fat. This product originally was used for dissolvable stitches and bone screws. Sclulptra is a synthetic polymer that lasts three to five years, longer than any other commercial filler. Sculptra from their website mentions that the treatment is four injection sessions 3 weeks apart.