All Procedures
Procedure: Body Fillers
Useful information for patients on Body Fillers - contouring, reshaping, and adding volume to different body areas without surgery.
Absorbable body fillers are an option to enhance our aesthetic plastic surgery procedures like body irregularities, imperfections and even cellulite.
They have also been proposed as a non-surgical procedure to enhance the appearance of different areas of the body in a minimally invasive way. They can be used in multiple areas of the body, such as buttocks, hands, calves, body imperfections, cellulite, décolletage, and upper arm.
We can distinguish them in fillers based on Hyaluronic acid, a naturally occurring molecule, and synthetics such as Poly-L-lactic acid and calcium hydroxylapatite, also known as biostimulators. Because of their biocompatibility, and low risk of complications, non-permanent fillers are the most widely used products. An additional advantage of hyaluronic acid is that it offers an antidote in case of complications: the hyaluronidase.
The use of permanent synthetic fillers is less common and even banned in some countries due to their high risk to produce adverse reactions.
Body fillers injections are often performed in the subcutaneous layer with a microcannula, reducing downtime, bruising, scarring and risk of side effects. The result lasts between 12 to 24 months depending on the type of product, treated area, and patients’ metabolism.
Useful Information
Ensure you consider all aspects of a procedure. You can speak to your surgeon about these areas of the surgery in more detail during a consultation.
Length
The length of treatment depends on the areas being treated and it ranges from 10 to 30 minutes.
Anesthesia
Usually local anesthetic injection, sometimes topical anesthetic cream, or no anesthesia at all.
Inpatient/Outpatient
These treatments are performed as outpatient procedures.
Additional Information
Transient swelling, itching, pain, redness, and bruising.
Risk of tender bumps, nodules, and granulomas can happen with non-permanent fillers. Also major complications such as thrombus formation have also been reported and this is why it is important these procedures although seem to be simple must be performed by physicians with the knowledge, training, and experience to perform such procedures.
The use of permanent fillers is highly discouraged as it entails a high risk of adverse reactions.
Pain, redness, and itching if occur, usually settle after 24 to 48 hours. Patients can return to their normal activities immediately.
Stable results could be achieved in 2/3 weeks with hyaluronic acid-based products or in some months, in the case of biostimulators products.