Everything You Need to Know about Facial Fillers & Their Benefits

Published by Dr. Jay Lucas, MD, a board-certified surgeon with over 20 years of experience.

Key Takeaways:

• Facial fillers restore lost facial volume to smooth wrinkles and enhance contours.
• Different fillers address different concerns, so treatment should be personalized to your needs.
• Fillers can enhance areas like the cheeks, lips, jawline, and smile lines.
• Treatments are quick, require minimal downtime afterward, and often provide fast results.
• Depending on the filler and treatment area, results can last one to two years.

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More than ever before, we live in a time filled with options for keeping ourselves looking youthful and glowing. What’s more, without surgery, we can also enhance our natural features in ways that go far beyond applying makeup in the morning.

We’re lucky, really! If we’re interested, there’s an abundance of skincare products, surgical procedures, and non-surgical aesthetic treatments to choose from, which can address or even prevent many signs of aging or allow us to enhance and contour our features.

All the options can also mean there’s a lot of information to take in!

To help you make sense of it all, we’re focusing here on one very popular treatment type: facial fillers. We’ll take a look at how they work, what to expect, and how they can make a significant difference, yet (when delivered by a skilled practitioner) still deliver natural-looking, subtle outcomes.

What Are Facial Fillers and How Do They Restore Facial Volume?

Let’s start with why facial fillers are needed so we can understand what they do…

One natural effect of aging is that we lose some volume in our faces. Natural fat pads under the skin deplete over time. Whereas in the past, those pads would typically provide youthful fullness and help determine the contours of the face, those areas can begin to look somewhat sunken.

At the same time, our skin (in contrast) doesn’t typically lose volume. In fact, another natural effect of aging is that your body produces less collagen, so skin loses some of its elasticity and tends to get even looser over time.

Combine underlying facial volume loss with the looser skin that now has less volume to fill it out, and you get — you guessed it — wrinkles and saggy skin!

This is where facial fillers come in. Also sometimes called “soft-tissue fillers” or grouped with other treatments under the term “injectables,” facial fillers are substances injected beneath the skin. Despite the common name “dermal fillers,” they are never injected into the dermis itself. They may be placed just below it (sub-dermally), but they are mostly used to restore the volume of facial fat pads lost with age.

3 Main Types of Facial Fillers for Volume

There are several different types of fillers, and they can work in slightly different ways:

• Hyaluronic acid (HA) fillers: HA is a substance your skin already has and uses for volume and hydration. Unfortunately, as you get older, your body makes less of it. HA fillers add it back into your skin.
• Calcium hydroxylapatite (CaHA) fillers: CaHA is also a substance already found in your body, but this time in your bones. With this filler, the injection you receive contains microscopic particles of CaHA suspended in a gel. The gel is designed to immediately fill in volume, while the tiny particles are supposed to provide underlying support and increase your body’s natural collagen production.
• Poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) fillers: These work by helping your body create more of its own collagen to provide more structure and firmness to your skin.

As you research fillers, some brands you may encounter include:

• Sculptra®
• Restylane®
• RADIESSE®
• Juvéderm®

Here at The Lucas Center, we offer our patients hyaluronic acid fillers from Juvéderm®, including:

• Voluma® XC
• Ultra Plus XC
• Volbella®
• Volux®

Using Your Own Fat to Restore Volume

For patients with age-related volume loss in several areas of the face, especially when combined with weight loss, fat grafting can be an excellent alternative to filler. If you have appropriate donor sites, Dr. Lucas can transfer your own fat to fill multiple areas at once. The procedure can be done in the office under local anesthesia, often yields better results, and avoids the cost of purchasing many syringes of filler.

Which Facial Areas Benefit Most from Facial Filler Treatments?

In general, fillers are going to be most helpful for issues like:

• Sunken cheeks
• Low lip volume
• Deep wrinkles around the mouth
• Acne scarring

Let’s zoom in on a few areas of concern…

How Cheek Fillers Enhance Facial Contours and Volume

Part of what makes faces so interesting and beautiful is their contours, especially around the cheekbones. But as you age, the loss of volume already discussed can cause your cheeks to kind of flatten out (and add those wrinkles we talked about). No more youthful contours!

In a skilled hand, however, the right facial filler can restore fullness to the cheek area, bringing back the gentle contours of the face and helping smooth the wrinkles that have developed.

Enhancing rather than fighting aging? Every face is unique. Perhaps you haven’t lost volume yet, but you’ve never had much cheekbone contour to speak of. If you’d like to add definition and fullness to your cheek area simply for enhancement purposes, fillers are for that, too!

The Benefits of Lip, Jawline, and Nasolabial Fold Fillers

One of the greatest benefits of facial fillers is how customized and targeted they can be. With an expert to guide you on which filler is best and then target accordingly, you can focus not just on your overall skin health (still a great goal!) but keep the sagging, wrinkles, and folds at bay in specific places.

For your lips: This means you can get fuller, poutier lips again (or maybe for the first time) and help reduce those fine lines that begin to form around the mouth over time.

For your jawline: Take back the definition that aging stole from your jawline! Strategically placed filler can help get rid of those sagging jowls that are a common concern as skin loosens.

For the smile lines: Also known as nasolabial folds, these are the lines from the corners of your mouth to your nose. While they are a natural part of your facial anatomy, they can tend to get much deeper with age. Fillers can add subtle volume back in so this area doesn’t draw attention to itself.

How Is the Facial Filler Procedure Performed and What Should You Expect?

After you’ve made an appointment for fillers, the first step will be having a consultation with your practitioner, whether that’s in a medspa or a plastic surgery clinic. This is your chance to share the outcomes you’d like to see.

At The Lucas Center, this is when Dr. Lucas will analyze your facial structure and skin quality and recommend certain filler types and locations. With your permission, he may make some temporary marks on your face to serve as guides when it’s injection time.

What Is the Injection Process Like and How Long Does It Take?

When everyone has agreed on the plan, it will be time to clean your face to ensure safe and sanitary injections. You may also receive a topical anesthetic (painkiller) via lotion or cream in order to make you as comfortable as possible during the injections.

The number of injections will depend upon the number of areas on which you’re focused. However, the whole process should be relatively quick. It can range from a few minutes to around an hour.

Aftercare Guidelines and Recovery Time After Facial Fillers

Here is some of what you might expect after the procedure is complete:

• Your provider may clean your face again.
• You may experience some mild bruising, swelling, or discomfort around the filler injection sites for up to a few days.
• Periodically applying an ice pack may help reduce swelling and discomfort.
• You should be ready to return to normal activity right away.
• Check with your provider regarding how soon to resume wearing makeup.

And here’s the best news: typically, you will see results very quickly. Many fillers, like Juvéderm® (which we use here at The Lucas Center), can show immediate results!

How Long Do Different Facial Fillers Last in Facial Areas?

Depending on the filler and the area, results can last anywhere from 1 to 2 years. That means you can sit back and enjoy firmer, fuller skin without rushing right back for more!

Take Your Next Step

Still curious, and want to learn more? If you’ve got facial rejuvenation on the mind, and you’d also like to know about other options, take a look at our other aesthetic services. You can also learn about how BOTOX® and fillers are different and can be used in combination.

Ready to get started? You have lots of options, and our team here at The Lucas Center is ready to help you decide the best fit. Whatever treatment you choose, we’d love to help you take the next step on your journey toward confidence! Give us a call at (865) 217-0572 or schedule a consultation today!