Permanent skin wrinkles or sunken skin and soft tissues can be rejuvenated using injectable fillers.

Hyaluronic Acid (Restylane®, Juvederm®)

Hyaluronic acid is a naturally-occurring protein which, when manufactured naturally by the body forms much of the structural support for our connective tissues.

When injected it acts as a temporary filler, typically lasting for 8 - 12 months when injected into wrinkles and half as long in lips.

It should not cause allergic reactions, because synthetic hyaluronic acid has an identical structure to that which is produced in your body naturally. However, as with anything that is injected, a breach in the skin carries a small risk of infection.

The injections are uncomfortable, but patients rarely need anything other than local anaesthetic cream for the discomfort.

Other than a little transient swelling, you will see the final contour is achieved immediately after your treatment.

Fat

Using a syringe to extract it from your abdomen, thighs or buttocks, I can then separate off pure fat cells and re-inject them beneath deep wrinkles and troughs in your forehead and facial skin or into your lips to fill them out.

For the technique to work and last, the newly injected fat cells must ultimately derive a new blood supply in the region into which they are injected. Not all do, so a certain degree of over-injection is necessary on the basis that not all cells will survive. The disadvantage of this, is that you will look swollen for some weeks after your treatment. Getting good results with fat injection is unpredictable and somewhat of an art, but when it works, results are long-lasting with most patients finding at least 50% of the augmentation remains at 6 months .

An allergic reaction won’t happen, because you won’t react to your own fat, but as with anything that is injected, a breach in the skin carries a small risk of infection.

You will need local anaesthetic injections both at the sites from which fat is harvested and the site(s) into which fat is being injected.

Isolagen®

This product represents a major advance in safe, permanent soft tissue rejuvenation.

The treatment involves two stages: first under local anaesthetic, a tiny sample of your skin is harvested from behind the ear and sent to the Isolagen laboratory in London. They use this to culture many million of your own collagen-producing fibroblast cells, which eight weeks later, they send back processed and prepared for re-injection into the areas you wish to have rejuvenated. Typically this involves a series of three injections which will stimulate long-term tissue growth and regeneration.

An allergic reaction won’t happen, because you won’t react to your own cells, but as with anything that is injected, a breach in the skin carries a small risk of infection.

Moreover, your cells can be frozen in the lab and re-used later to make you further injections as required.

Poly-L-lactic Acid

In a different structural form, this substance has been used extensively in surgical practice for decades as dissolving stitches for the skin and subcutaneous tissues as well as plates and screws used to fix fractures and bone defects.

As an injectable solution (Sculptra ™, New-Fill ™) was first licensed for use treating HIV patients who, as part of their disease process, had lost facial fat resulting in hollowed, malnourished looking faces. Since it’s introduction in 1999 over 150,000 patients have been treated with it with excellent, sustained results.

It is a long-lasting, biocompatible and biodegradable substance, which I use in both reconstructive and cosmetic practice. When used on suitable patients, for suitable cosmetic problems it will gradually produce a natural-looking improvement that may last for up to 2 years.

It works on the lower layers of the skin, causing it to thicken, and in so doing, it smooths and firms the skin.

It is gradually and naturally broken down by the body and is theoretically immunologically inert, so that no allergy testing is necessary before treatment.

Although results are noticeable within two weeks, improvement continues for weeks after that, so the number of injections necessary to achieve a finished result varies, but generally, several treatments are necessary to obtain a finished result.

As with anything that is injected, a breach in the skin carries a small risk of infection.