Everyone who wants to improve their appearance wants the quickest, most pain-free method possible. People across the country who don’t want facelifts are considering fillers or fat grafting in Inland Empire, California where I practice to Miami, Florida; from Los Angeles to New York; Chicago to Atlanta. People want to know the best and easiest ways they can look younger and better. You may not need a facelift. You may just want to get rid of facial hollows and lines, nasolabial folds and marionette lines. Until recently, doctors have recommended Juvéderm, Voluma, Restylane or Sculptra injections to fill these areas. Two different injectable treatments now provides great results – one last up to 4 times longer. The other – BeautiFill – could last a lifetime. Both can also be far more cost-effective than other fillers. Let me explain why, as a facial plastic surgeon I feature both in my practice.
Why use fillers or fat grafting for marionette lines, hollow cheeks and nasolabial folds?
Facial plastic surgeons once thought a good facelift that tightens underlying muscles, tissues and skin best restores a person’s youthful appearance. With many patients it does. However, cosmetic surgeons noticed that sometimes tightening sagging muscles and skin helped, but not enough. Other patients had hollow cheeks, nasolabial folds (that run from the corners of the nose to the corners of the mouth) and marionette lines (that run from the corners of the mouth to the jaw). They weren’t deep enough to require a facelift. Still, these people clearly looked older than they wanted. What was the problem?
They were suffering from volume loss in the fat pads under their facial skin. You see, young people have natural subdermal fat deposits that give their faces a pleasing, properly rounded look. Their features have soft angles. But as you age, you lose about a teaspoon of fat every year after age 25. By the time you’re 55, you’ve lost 30 teaspoons of fat under your face. This becomes noticeable. Once soft angles in your face now become sharper. You start looking older. But you don’t yet need a facelift. What can you do?
Is Fat Transfer (Fat Grafting) the best answer?
Doctors naturally thought that the best way to replace lost facial fat was to transplant it from another part of your body. This is good thinking. Fat grafting can provide permanent improvement. I perform what I believe is the best fat transfer method available. Unfortunately, most plastic surgeons still perform traditional fat grafting.
The problem with traditional fat grafting is that many fat cells your doctor transplants from one part of your body to another will not survive for long. So, if your facial rejuvenation specialist does a traditional fat transfer procedure, he or she will have to inject a lot more fat than you need just to get the long-term results you want. This can leave you with a puffy face at first. Ideally, as some fat cells adapt to their new location and others die off, the puffiness will go down. You’ll end up with the younger-looking features you want. But it’s a gamble. Patients often need additional procedures when too many fat cells don’t “take.” And if too many do take, you can end up with a plumper-looking face than you want. Once the fat establishes itself in your face, you can never get it out. Traditional fat transfer can be like rolling the dice.
BeautiFill is a major breakthrough in fat grafting. As you’ll see in “Better Fat Grafting to Restore Facial Volume and Improve Nasolabial Folds – Look Beautiful Again with BeautiFill,“ surgeons well trained in using the new BeautiFill equipment can obtain a much higher number of viable fat cells. Fat grafting with BeautiFill can result in take rates of up to 95%. And considering how long your own fat cells can last once they take, a fat transfer procedure with BeautiFill can cost the least in the long run. But if you’re not sure what you want or don’t want even a minimal surgical procedure, you may want to consider a filler. The question is: Which one is best?
Fillers give immediate results – but don’t last long enough
Dermal fillers like Juvéderm, Voluma, Restylane, Radiesse and Sculptra can instantly provide great looking results. A skilled injector can effectively fill hollow cheeks, lines and wrinkles, nasolabial folds and marionette lines. Unlike traditional fat transfer, where you leave the office looking puffy, these fillers can give you just the look you want.
Unfortunately, along with great results, fillers can provide several problems:
- It can take many filler injections to replace all the fat you’ve lost in your face
- Repeated filling of deep lines can create a bluish tint in the areas treated
- Your body will absorb most fillers in 12-18 months (24 months for Sculptra)
- Getting enough filler injections to achieve the long-lasting look you want can be expensive
- Bellafill is a more cost-effective solution; BeautiFill fat grafting is much less expensive in the long run
Bellafill is a nasolabial fold and marionette lines filler
Bellafill is an FDA approved filler that uses PPMA, a substance used in orthopedic bone cement, to provide scaffolding for your own natural collagen. It delivers both instant and long-lasting results. Bellafill has millions of round microscopic particles (microspheres) of PPMA evenly suspended in bovine collagen, once the filler of choice for millions. The reason fillers like Juvéderm, Voluma, Restylane and Sculptra have become much more popular is that while bovine collagen provides great, natural-looking results, it doesn’t last very long. Your body will absorb it in a few months.
Those few months, though, are long enough for Bellafill’s PPMA microspheres to attract your body’s own natural collagen, which will start growing around them. Unlike traditional fat transfer, with Bellafill you’ll leave the office looking great right away. And, as your own collagen forms around the microspheres, you’ll continue looking good for a long time – up to 5 years or even longer – see 5 year Before and After photo below.
Unlike Juvéderm, Voluma, Restylane, Radiesse and Sculptra, Bellafill doesn’t produce the Tyndall Effect – the bluish tint we mentioned earlier. That’s why it’s FDA-approved to treat nasolabial folds and even deep acne scars.
Bellafill is the best filler available, but BeautiFill is most cost effective CONTACT Dr. Machida Inland Empire, CA
Don’t get me wrong – Juvéderm, Voluma, Restylane, Radiesse and Sculptra are all good treatments. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. But since I practice in Inland Empire, California – once dubbed “America’s Most Wrinkle-Prone Area,” I’ve made a careful study of which methods work best for my patients.
I can say without reservations that fat grafting with BeautiFill can give you the longest-lasting results at the best price. It’s often under $5,000. Of course, it is a surgical procedure, since it involves an incision and removing unwanted fat.
If you’re looking for a relatively pain-free nonsurgical treatment that will let you leave the office looking your best and keep your good looks for years, Bellafill is the filler of choice. It does cost more than other fillers and BeautiFill. Not everyone is a good candidate for Bellafill. If you don’t know what you want or if your injector is not a skilled facial rejuvenation specialist, Bellafill might not be a good choice. That’s because, unlike HA fillers like Restylane and Juvederm, it cannot be reversed if you don’t like it.
Are you a good candidate for fat grafting with BeautiFill? Would Bellafill or another filler be a better choice for you? To find out, please consult an experienced, board certified facial plastic or plastic surgeon or cosmetic dermatologist in your area. They should be skilled in the art of facial rejuvenation, and preferably a physician who only treats the face. Ask if they offer Bellafill. Find out if they offer BeautiFill. Most physicians don’t yet offer this breakthrough in fat grafting. I do. In Inland Empire (metro Los Angeles), you can find me at STC Plastic Surgery in Ontario, CA.
CONTACT Dr. Machida Inland Empire, CA
