Perlane Power
With a number of facial fillers on the market today and a number of fillers that have been used historically, we have seen great progress as these medical technologies and their applications develop over time. Restylane and Perlane stand out among the most trusted, safe, and useful fillers today. Perlane is one of the hyaluronic acid fillers distributed by Medicis, Inc., along with Restylane. We have found Restylane to be optimal for placement in under-eye hollows due to the thinness of the skin in this region, and we have also found that Perlane is a stand out product for volume replacement in the cheeks, chin, and in areas that require deeper filler placement for the shaping of the features. Often these are highly complimentary fillers, with Perlane restoring the deep fullness to the cheeks and provide a foundation for the volume that is associated with youth.
Perlane is a thicker hyaluronic acid filler, which makes it ideal for the types of contouring described above. It is a product with proven utility and safety, and its application is also easy and convenient. Treatment with Perlane can be as simple as an office visit with a qualified expert physician. Indeed, many individuals seeking advice from Dr. Steinsapir opt for treatment in the office at the time of the initial consultation. This treatment offers the benefit of longevity yet the convenience and flexibility. While you can enjoy your Perlane results for a year or more, eventually they will wear off. This allows for treatment at convenient intervals and without the concerns often associated with surgery. We find that most individuals receiving Perlane filler from Dr. Steinsapir are happy with their results and choose to maintain the aesthetic benefits achieved with periodic office visits.
In the past facial fillers like grafted fat, sculptra, and silicone oil have had their supporters and detractors. Today Perlane is typically a better alternative to these permanent and semi-permanent options. With Sculptra, altering your treatment is far more challenging. A saline injection may have some utility in breaking up the filler, but often it’s insufficient, and you may even require excision to alter your results. Silicone filler can also be understood as a permanent filler, and over time you are more likely to have dissatisfactory outcomes that are more complicated to change. And while grafted fat is sometimes indicated, Perlane is usually a more comfortable, minimally invasive, nonsurgical option. Surprisingly Perlane has a longevity that is very competitive to grafted fat, which often seems to require repetitive treatments to maintain the effect.
Lumps and bumps created by the permanent fillers can require major surgery to address. Conversely, results from the filler Perlane are easy to shape and change when needed. A treatment might hold a little too much volume and this can easily be modified in the office with an injection of the enzyme hyaluronidase. With a simple, comfortable office visit you can have your results shaped when necessary to achieve the best possible result. Perlane results rival and in many cases, exceed what can be accomplished with surgery.
When choosing a treatment provider, be sure to choose someone with differentiated expertise. As one of the top 3% users of Restylane and Perlane, Dr. Steinsapir makes facial fillers a major focus of his private practice in Beverly Hills. For a treatment plan customized to help you achieve your most natural aesthetic results possible, we invite you to consult with Dr. Steinsapir today. Please contact us for more information on how you can achieve remarkable improvements in your facial appearance without surgery.
About Dr. Steinsapir
Dr. Steinsapir is a board certified eye surgeon and fellowship-trained in oculoplastic surgery and cosmetic surgery in Los Angeles where he specializes in balanced facial cosmetic surgery for natural results, with an emphasis on minimally invasive techniques, fast recovery time, and leadership in medical technology. Dr. Steinsapir has a private practice and also serves as an Associate Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Eye Institute, at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Contact us today to learn how Dr. Steinsapir’s experience and training make him an expert in cosmetic surgery, which can be a vital part of your evidence-based treatment plan.
Services described may be “off-label” and lack FDA approval. This article is informational and does not constitute an advertisement for off-label treatment. No services should be provided without a good faith examination by a licensed physician or surgeon and an informed consent with a discussion of risks, benefits, alternatives, and the likelihood of treatment success. Only you and your treating physician or surgeon can determine if a treatment is right for you.
Stem Cell Facelift vs. Fat Transfers
It is said that every good lie contains a grain of truth. The truth about so-called Stem Cell Facelifts is that fat harvested from your body does contain small numbers of adult stem cells. Taking that fat and transferring it to your face as a fat transfer does place these adult stem cells into the face. However, the promise of the name: Stem Cell Facelift is a lie. The implication is that these stem cells in some way rejuvenate the face. Like fad dieting and get rich quick schemes, the public can’t get enough of this type of hype. You would think at some point people would have learned that if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. You would be wrong. Enterprising cosmetic surgeons have learned this lesson as well. So we are bombarded with new procedures with enticing names that seem so scientific. It would be great if the Stem Cell Facelift was based on science rather than science fiction. Do so-called Stem Cell Facelifts provide facial rejuvenation? Yes, but not because of the adult stem cells in the fat. This is just a new way for cosmetic surgeons to insult your intelligence.
The Real Benefits of fat grafting
The reality is, there is no evidence to suggest that stem cells present in adult fat placed in the face have any impact or role in the effects of volumizing the face with grafted fat. Fat grafting procedures work because about 60 to 70 percent of the transferred fat survives, creating long-lasting volume and this helps improve the appearance of the face because loss of volume over time is an important factor in making one look older as we age.
Fat grafting is a biologically safe procedure because the fat transferred is from your body. It is precisely delivered through a tiny poke in the skin that heals without scarring and the procedure can be done under local anesthesia. The fat transfer in a “stem cell facelift” may be combined with other procedures like a traditional facelift or midface lift. It is more accurate to refer to a “stem cell facelift” as “facial volumizing with grafted fat.”
Fact and fiction
It is true that the stem cells in your body fat can be separated from the fat and, in a test tube at a research lab, be stimulated to develop into other cell types. There is a lot of impressive research being done in this area so we can learn more about important potential medical uses of stem cells. But there is no evidence to support the idea that the stem cells in the grafted fat are stimulated this way when transplanted from one part of your body to another
Finding a doctor who relies on science
The biggest concern with the “stem cell facelift” is not that it’s a bad or unsafe procedure, but rather that the term “stem cell” is a deceptive name that promises something that it does not deliver. When seeking treatment, make sure that your potential cosmetic surgeon relies on science, experience, and skill rather than catchy marketing phrases. Your doctor should be a specialist in facial cosmetic procedures and completely honest about what a treatment does and does not do. Relying on the honest application of skills, proven methods, and experience will help you achieve your goals. Deceptive marketing practices violate the principles that make a good working relationship between the surgeon and the patients, which must be based on well-placed trust and honesty.
About Dr. Steinsapir
Dr. Steinsapir is an expert cosmetic plastic surgeon who has skillfully handled face lift and fat grafting procedures in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills for over 20 years. He is a board certified ophthalmologist surgeon and fellowship trained in oculofacial surgery and cosmetic surgery in Southern California where he specializes in balanced facial cosmetic surgery for natural results, with an emphasis on minimally invasive techniques, fast recovery time, and leadership in medical technology. Dr. Steinsapir has a private practice and also serves as an Associate Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Eye Institute, at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Contact us today to learn how Dr. Steinsapir’s experience and training make him an expert cosmetic surgery provider.
Services described may be “off-label” and lack FDA approval. This article is informational and does not constitute an advertisement for off-label treatment. No services should be provided without a good faith examination by a licensed physician and an informed consent with a discussion of risks, benefits, alternatives, and the likelihood of treatment success. Only you and your treating physician or surgeon can determine if a treatment is right for you.
Is it a good idea to freeze fat for later use?
One of the reasons fat grafting can be both useful and so safe is because these cosmetic procedures rely on your own tissue and, as your exact biological match, so no risk of an allergic reaction or rejection of the cells placed. This facial filler is literally your own fat cells.
Fat is a living graft. The harvested fat cells are placed where they need to be in order to rejuvenate your features through facial volume restoration. Fat transfer to the face is clinically successful because approximately 60% to 70% of the fat that is grafted survives, creating meaningful results in areas like the midface.
Effective fat transfer treatment relies on the grafting of living fat. Like other living things, the fat cells used in fat transfers have a lifespan, can be damaged, and will eventually die. The primary problem with freezing fat for later use is that the fat’s life is not easily preserved, which means your treatment will not be as effective next time.
Why doesn’t freezing fat work very well?
When your cosmetic surgeon harvests fat for your treatment, he or she will obtain it from another part of your body, essentially performing a mini liposuction on that area. It’s very appealing to harvest extra fat for later use, because theoretically you can initially have a more comprehensive liposuction procedure, and then save this fat to top off your filler sometime in the future – in other words, you’d get the added cosmetic benefit of liposuction now and then cut a step out of your treatment later. Unfortunately, cutting corners often leads to problems, and this example is no exception.
You have heard of fertility doctors and researchers freezing eggs, so it’s tempting to assume that you can just plop your harvested fat cells into a freezer and come back to them in a few months or years. In this case, the egg is preserved using very special tissue techniques that enable a high percentage (but not all) of the eggs to survive. Much of the fat, on the other hand, dies once it is frozen. As we discussed above, successful fat transfer results relies on the viable fat cells that survive transfer.
If your facial cosmetic surgeon were to freeze your fat for later use and then place it during your later treatment, you would ultimately have disappointing results. Immediately after the treatment, you would have some swelling caused by the injection and the added volume, just as occurred during your original fat grafting procedure. However, this time the results would be disappointing, because the body will work to remove the dead fat cells, and a vast proportion of them will have not survived. Since great results depends on the transfer of your living cells, with fewer alive you will have less satisfaction in the outcome. Because of the inflammation associated with the body removing the dead fat cells, swelling is the main reason you might think the procedure was initially successful and then over the course of weeks, this swelling disappears.
Additionally, you should consider that a surgeon who offers to store fat is running an unlicensed tissue bank. Licensed tissue banks have very tightly controlled procedures, specialized equipment, expertise, and backup procedures. How do you know you are getting your own fat back, what steps were taken to reduce the risk of cross-contamination? Do they screen for Hepatitis and HIV? Before jumping on board with a surgeon who says he or she can save your fat for later, you need to find out if your doctor has the appropriate licensing and background needed to perform these additional medical tasks. But you should also question whether freezing fat for later is a good practice to begin with.
Best Practices for Best Results
Given these reasons, it is no wonder that freezing fat for later use has been questioned by respected medical authorities. Time-tested experience and clinical studies have shown that harvesting fresh fat yields the best possible results. When it comes to things as important as your health and appearance, it never pays to take shortcuts. At worst, to do so would be a gamble and a risk; at best, the shortcut would bring dissatisfactory results and you’ll need to redo your treatment the right way.
The evidence-based placement of fillers for the face like Restylane and natural fat transfers are an excellent option for many individuals who are dissatisfied with their deficiencies in facial volumes. If you are concerned and wonder if a fat transfer or another service might benefit you, consider how a specialized physician in facial fillers and treatments can help.
Dr. Steinsapir studied at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA as well as at the University of Chicago, and he is trained in both cosmetic and oculofacial surgery. His philosophy is to build customized aesthetic solutions for individuals that enhance the face’s natural beauty with balanced results through minimally invasive practices. To learn more about safe and effective fat transfers and other facial concerns, contact us today to schedule your risk-free consultation.
