Facial Fillers San Jose

The great world of fillers began nearly 30 years ago with injectable collagen and of course fat many years ago. Since that advent many more fillers have arrived and those available in 2008 are a great pleasure for patients and doctors.

Let’s look at various aspects of fillers; names, uses, differences between fillers and Botox®, actual treatment procedures and my very own philosophy about the use, efficacy, and choice of fillers.

At present, the most used fillers include Evolence, Juvederm®, Artifill®, and Restylane®. There are others and more are sure to come but these are available.

They all work and they vary in price with Artifill being the most expensive. The front line fillers are Evolence, Juvederm and Resylane.

The FDA allows the companies to claim duration up to a year which is likely true.

The fillers do just that, they fill deficient areas. Part of aging is skin thinning and fat loss. All fillers can be used to fill nasolabial folds (lines lateral to the nose and mouth) to lift the corners of the mouth and smooth deficient areas, and fill out lips. Other deficient areas that can be nicely treated include lower eyelid hollowness and demarcation deformity of the cheek-eyelid secondary to aging. The results are natural, soft and beautiful.

Botox® relaxes muscles and decreases the lining that results (frown, forehead, crows feet). Fillers fill tissue deficient areas. Botox® does not fill. Fillers do not relax muscles. They can, however, work together for a pleasing lovely result.

Fillers (all fillers), even those with instilled lidocaine are painful to inject without a block similar to that done by your dentist. This is simply a step taken for the patient’s comfort and is not a big deal. Topical creams help slightly if kept on l hour plus but overall not much.

Historically, I felt the life length of fillers was too often too short but today that is no longer true. Some people seem to hold the fillers longer than others but in general filler duration is longer and longer and now up to a year. Cost ranges in the $500 plus or minus per syringe or cubic centimeter. The trick is to get maximum correction with minimum filler. This saves the patient’s financial resources and attention to detail gets the best result with the least filler.

Bruising can occur but in general patients look remarkably good in 24 hours (especially with Evolence).

At consultation, your needs and exact costs will be given to you prior to treatment. There will be no surprises. Total happiness is my goal for my patients.

George W. Commons, M.D., F.A.C.S.