Question to the expert: What are fillers and why are they used
margarita virova
Answers to most questions that concern us we are all used to searching online. In this series of materials we ask precisely such questions - burning, unexpected or widespread - to professionals in various fields.
When the word "fillers" in the imagination of the majority emerge hypertrophic lips and cheekbones. Some people are afraid that the result of contour plastics will look unnatural, others are completely afraid of the word "plastic" and think that this is a rather risky procedure. Is it so? Who needs fillers and why? Let's figure it out.
Marina Ryabus
Candidate of Medical Sciences, dermatocosmetologist, antiage specialist, head physician of the Marina Ryabus Clinic
The introduction of fillers is one of the most popular, safe and well-studied cosmetological procedures in the world. Only in the USA about 2.5 million procedures are performed per year, and this figure is constantly growing. Fillers take over the world at once for several reasons. Firstly, this procedure is reversible. Its effect fades away after a few months, which gives it a huge advantage over plastic surgery. Secondly, the result is visible immediately. No other procedure can boast of such a strong instant wow effect. Thirdly, it has a very wide range of applications, so in one form or another it is suitable for both young and old patients, regardless of gender. And, fourthly, the procedure takes place quickly and does not hurt: as part of modern drugs there is an anesthetic, and the doctor rarely takes more than half an hour for all the manipulations.
What are fillers? This injection drugs. By texture, it is a rather viscous and plastic gel, which, depending on the location and depth of administration, can replenish or increase the volume of tissues and change their contours. With the help of fillers, facial features can be changed very much; therefore, it is correct to call this procedure contour plastics. Fillers differ in density, depth of introduction, basis, method of its synthesis. So, for procedures like contouring the chin or creating the cheekbones, a dense preparation is needed, and to give volume to the lips or fill the nasolacrimal sulcus, a soft one. The depth and method of administration also depend on the tasks: to increase the volume and a slight lifting, the drug is injected shallowly, to work with the ligamentous apparatus, it is placed under the muscle directly on the bone.
With the help of fillers, we can fill or add volumes on the cheeks, cheekbones, lips, temples, remove paint bags under the eyes, change the shape of the face and contours of the chin, cheekbones, forehead, and also “replace” the ligamentous apparatus and along with it the contours faces. In addition, lately non-surgical rhinoplasty is gaining great popularity: with the help of fillers, the shape of the nose can be changed almost beyond recognition — remove the crotch, narrow the back and the tip. And still fillers can fill scars with post-acne and deep scars, making them almost invisible. Fillers are biodegradable with different duration of action and permanent, that is, those that remain in the body forever. We will not discuss the latter: these are synthetic drugs, and all of them, with the exception of one, are banned in the USA and most EU countries because of the high risk of complications. Yes, and you can hardly find a good doctor who agrees to introduce you to such a drug. In addition, there are fillers for breast and buttock augmentation, but we will not talk about them in detail either: in most countries, fillers are prohibited for anything other than the face.
Depending on the purpose of the procedure, a filler is selected with a specific duration of action, it can be a drug that is active from three months to two years. The most popular and studied are hyaluronic acid based fillers, which retain their effect for about six months. They account for almost 80% of all procedures. True, recently they have been suppressed by calcium hydroxyapatite-based fillers, which lasts up to one and a half years, and preparations in which both bases are present.
With the help of fillers, facial features can be changed very much; therefore, it is correct to call this procedure contour plastic.
As already mentioned, the action of calcium-based hyaluronic acid fillers and calcium hydroxyapatite disappears with time, and this reversibility is one of the main advantages of contour plastic surgery before surgery. If the result of the procedure did not suit the patient, he can either wait until the drug is naturally removed from the tissues or speed up this process with the help of hyaluronidase, a natural antidote. But fillers have another curious feature: they stimulate the production of your own collagen in the injection zone. As a result, after several procedures, own collagen fibers are formed at the re-injection site, and the drug does not need to be punctured.
The main super-strength of fillers based on hyaluronic acid is the creation and replenishment of volumes. With age or with a dramatic weight loss, our face loses fatty tissue and ceases to look smooth and full. In fact, aging is a loss of soft tissue. This is especially noticeable in men: due to the greater amount of testosterone in the body, their faces lose adipose tissue faster than the faces of women. Therefore, fillers are often recommended for men to fill up the volume of soft tissues of the face. Women are most likely shown fillers based on calcium hydroxyapatite. The main area of application of these fillers is the work with the ligament apparatus and the correction of the "floated" oval, the "dangling" middle third, nasolabial folds that appear, paint bags, and so on. This work is carried out at a very deep level: the drug is injected under the muscle and fixes the ligaments in the position in which they should be anatomically. And recently, this very technique has been at the forefront of cosmetology, especially in Russia.
The fact is that Russian, American and European women age differently. In the West, the most common type of aging is small-wrinkled, in which the tissues remain in place, but lose volume and become covered with wrinkles, which are easily filled with a subcutaneous filler. The Russians are aging differently: in most cases their face sags under the influence of gravity, that is, the volumes are not lost, but shifted. In this case, trying to fill the nasolabial fold with a filler is at least strange: the correct solution would be to work with bundles and displaced tissues. This task is best done by drugs based on calcium hydroxyapatite. In addition, they are more active than hyaluronic acid to stimulate the production of their own collagen, which helps the tissues to remain in place even after the drug is biodegraded.
As in other areas of cosmetology, the main trend in today's contour plastics is naturalness. In the right hands, this technique allows minimal intervention to correct age-related changes or harmonize facial features, without leaving even a hint of man-made. In addition, the fillers improve the quality of the skin and give it a powerful anti-aging stimulus, while remaining one of the safest procedures, with virtually no contraindications. Most of the complications that have ever been reported after the introduction of fillers are associated with infection of the injection site, and not with the drug, and even those classified as non-dangerous and self-inflicting. Science describes the formation of biofilms after the introduction of fillers, but this is due either to the use of forbidden permanent fillers, or to injections into injured tissue, or to the lack of traceability and uncollected history. However, none of the above should not be afraid if you are in the hands of an experienced doctor.
Actually, the search for such a specialist is the only serious point of preparation for the procedure. Trusting your face to someone, you must be sure that your ideas about beauty coincide. By the way, if the doctor refuses to give you the additional amount of the drug, then most likely you have a good specialist. Otherwise, make sure that you do not have fever, inflammation of the skin, diabetes, allergies to the components of the drug, that you are not pregnant, did not drink alcohol and did not take blood thinners for a day. And try not to go to the gym and solarium and do not sleep face down in a pillow for three to five days after the procedure. There are no other special recommendations: contour plastic is really safe and not at all scary.
Photo: sveta - stock.adobe.com, Africa Studio - stock.adobe.com