| • Also known as: Dermal fillers, synthetic tissue augmentation
• Primary goal: Fill in wrinkles and grooves caused by loss of natural dermal collagen and fat.
• Special anatomy: Used to fill out depressions around the eyes, between the brows, as well as on the rest of the face.
• Anesthesia: None for most
• Operative technique: A non-surgical technique. The filler is placed into a syringe and injected through a needle or cannula into the dermis in the area of the skin depression. Multiple passes into different tissue planes achieves a layering effect, after which gentle massage may smooth out any beading.
• Products (the following long list grows longer almost monthly):
Zyderm and Zyplast are preparations of bovine (cow) collagen, while Dermalogen is of human origin (donor skin from cadaver tissue banks) and Autologen is derived from the patient's own tissues. Collagen disappears rapidly (sometimes in one or two months) and carries the risk of allergy.
Restylane and Perlane (Q-Med Esthetics), Juvederm, and Hylaform consist of longer-lasting but absorbable
 hyaluronic acid gel of non-animal origin that do not . . . |
