Facial fillers or injectables are an excellent way to turn back the hands of time without undergoing surgery. Facial fillers are minimally invasive and can instantly add fullness to your face and help reduce wrinkles, bags below the eyes, smile lines, and hallowed cheeks.
Although there are many different types of facial fillers, there is a large majority that use hyaluronic acid as the key ingredient. Sound scary? Don’t be alarmed. Hyaluronic acid is actually not an acid at all. Rather, it is a powerful sugar molecule that is well accepted by your body. In fact, your skin, joints, tissues and eyes are already full of hyaluronic acid! This sugar molecule works by pulling water towards itself and holding it there.
The hyaluronic acid in your facial filler is synthetically made to match the natural HA in your skin. Essentially the HA injected into your facial skin will attract and bind up water to form a soft gel, that feels and acts exactly like your skin’s natural HA. This creates the perfect solution for adding volume to the cheeks, reducing creases and wrinkles around the lips, chins and under eye hollows.
Don’t be alarmed if you have some initial swelling after your facial filler treatment. It is common for the hyaluronic acid in the filler to be over-eager and pull in large amounts of water quickly before a natural equalizing process occurs in the few days following. Always bring up your concerns to your dermatologist if you feel that the swelling is in abundance or is not going down.
Olansky Dermatology offers hyaluronic acid-based fillers such a Juvederm, Juvederm Voluma XC and Restylane. These types of facial fillers work best on moderate to severe wrinkles and they can also soften the appearance of scars.
