Who Needs Down Time When There’s Restylane?

Since 2000, multiple products and techniques have been developed in hopes of making lip augmentation more effective and patient friendly. The corresponding ease has been considered to likely be due to surgeons using tiny needles to inject the usually quite sensitive lips. Nonetheless, most doctors still prefer to use local (topical) anesthesia on their patients for these procedures.

Some of the most popular techniques used today for plumping up our lips are:

• Restylane, a non-animal, clear gel that is reported to be extremely close to the hyaluronic acid found naturally in the body. The substance usually lasts about six months to one year and, sometimes, longer. While Juvederm is chemically very close to Restylane, many doctors have reported that they prefer the former because of its smoothness upon injection.
• Fat transfer, is not as much in use since the new generation of safe and affordable dermal fillers found their place in the market.  Fat transfer in which surgeons harvest through liposuction or excision the patient’s fat from places on the body where it can be spared and either surgically placed into the lips or injected. These surgical operations usually require that the doctor uses general anesthesia on his/her patients.
• Artecoll, neither ArteFill or Artecoll are not used to inject the body of a patient’s lips because the substance is quite heavy and would show through as white underneath the thin skin of our lips. Both of these products contain tiny microspheres known as PMMA which permanently remain in the patient’s face. In some cases where Artecoll was used around the lips to remove fine lines or wrinkles, patients reported having annoying small lumps or nodules (some of which cases required surgery to remove the Artecoll).

While examining these options, one may think “Wow, these procedures sound intense!”, or “This sounds like too much work, forget it” but what we really need to remember is that not all three of these procedures are alike or equal. Though the fat transfer and Artecoll have more permanent effects, they also tend to leave the patient needing more down-time for recovery, while Restylane offers a sweet solution with a natural-looking finish. Although the other procedures may require you to schedule out surgery dates and request time off of work, Restylane is a simple procedure that can usually be performed on your first visit with extremely minimal to no down time at all. Although there can be some post-injection bruising or swelling side effects, most patients are out having fun and performing their normal daily activities without any issues within hours of having the procedure done.

One small warning that our office does head to current injectable patients and those who are thinking of becoming patients, DO YOUR RESEARCH! Many doctors offices allow their nurses or medical assistants to perform these injections at a reduced rate, but to get the best (most natural-looking) results with the least amount of down time, we recommend finding a physician like Dr. Parsa Mohebi who solely performs all injections and procedures in office without the option of getting less-than-perfect at a cheaper rate. Please dont hesitate to contact our office with any additional questions or concerns at (888)302-8747 or via email at ushr@ushairrestoration.com