Restylane & Juvedermin Boston, MA.

Volbella & Juvederm Ultra to the lips Here is our patient that I used to demonstrate at the recent Allergan Master Class, given at the Seaport Hotel in Boston. She is in her late 50’s , and is bothered by drooping of her cheeks, volume loss of the lips with “bar code” vertical lines of the upper lip and well as decreased volume of her lips with age. The lower lip vermillion is “corrugated” from volume loss. She had Botox to the frontalis muscle to shape and arch her eyebrows. She had Botox to the corrugator muscles to treat the frown lines, sometimes called “the 11’s”. She had Botox to the lateral orbicularis muscle to treat the “crow’s feet” lines. And Botox to the Procerus and Nasalis muscles to treat the “bunny lines” Juvederm Voluma was placed over the upper cheeks to treat the volume loss in this area. Juvederm Ultra was used to augment the lips along the lip roll, but also to add volume to the vermillion and evert the lower lip and fill the upper lip vermillion without looking “ducky”. The Volbella is a new product and is similar to Restylane Silk and Belletoro in that it can be used as a superficial filler to treat the “bar code lines” of the upper lip. It was also threaded superficially below the vermillion of the lower lip to add smoothness and shininess to the lip vermillion- she feels that her lips look ok without lipstick now.

A man in his mid 50’s who has had lower lid blepharoplasty elsewhere and was told that he might eventually need some volume to the midface. As we age, we are losing volume in our face- like a peach that’s been left on the counter too long. We can pull up skin that sags from volume loss with a face lift, but this doesn’t correct the volume loss. When the neck and jaw line is good, we can add volume back to give a more rested look. If we are in the operating room and a patient has enough fat we will use their own fat with fat grafting. But we can also add volume in the office. I prefer the non-animal stabilized hyaluronic acid (NASHA) fillers because they seem to give the best balance of the longest duration with the least chance of problems. And they can be reversed by dissolving them in the office with hyaluronidase, an enzyme, if they do have a rare problem. I also prefer “slow and steady” with correction. The best results are slightly underdone-tnis still looks natural but slightly overdone looks funny from across the room. This patient is shown after a series of 3 injections done at 2 week intervals. A total of 5 cc of “Restylane Lift” (formerly called Perlane) was used. The plan now will be to wait 6months or so and then add a little more as needed to maintain his results.

A woman in her mid 20’s who is bothered by a hollow appearance of her lower eyelids and cheeks. She is shown before and 2 months after Restylane to the “tear trough” area and 1 month after Restylane Lift to her upper cheeks.

A woman in her mid to late 50's who is bothered by an aged appearance of her face. She is interested in improvement without surgery. The first step in any consultation, after I find out what is bothering my patient is to make the diagnosis. There is a diagnosis with facial aging as in other areas of medicine. As we age, we lose volume in the face, through bone and fat resorption . She has significant loss of volume in her cheeks and middle face which makes her look older. She also has very active "crows feet" lines when she smiles, from activity of her lateral orbicularis muscles. Her brows are flat and give her a sad appearance. I have treated her with BOTOX to shape the brows, and weaken the lateral orbicularis muscles. Her brows have arched in a pleasing, but natural way. Her "crows feet" lines are markedly improved when she smiles. She has also had several treatments with non animal derived hyaluronic acid fillers (NASHA) including VOLUMA to her cheeks and the off label use of PERLANE to her cheeks. She has had RESTYLANE to improve the lines around her mouth. It is important to remember that this is not one treatment. The BOTOX is typically repeated in most patients every 4 months with a range of 3-6 months. The NASHA type fillers typically "last" 9 months with the first dose and 18 months with the subsequent doses. Allergan, the makers of VOLUMA reports that it lasts "up to 2 years" in the cheeks with full correction. I typically start with an improvement and then "tweak" the results as we go along. So over the past 18 months we have slowing enhanced her volume as she has returned to repeat her BOTOX. But of course, we want to stop short of creating a deformity with too much volume. "Slow and steady wins the race" and also helps us to achieve a natural result. I am grateful that she has allowed us to share her results with you. Although she has not had surgery, and does not wish surgery, I perform the same analysis with every patient who is considering correction of the deformity of facial aging. After discussing the options available, I try and anticipate what options that a patient and myself are likely to be pleased with. She could have had a "face lift" to tighten the skin of her neck and jowls, but this alone would not have given her the same improvement as addressing the volume loss of her face, (unless we performed fat grafting at the same time, which is another discussion) Many patients come in and tell me that they "want a face lift" because they think that this will somehow magically address all of the signs of aging on the face. I have found it best to carefully analyze the signs of aging and address as many as possible to achieve a balanced improvement, without creating a deformity. So whether with or without surgery, it is best to make a careful diagnosis and then consider all of the options.