You are definitely not alone on this one… everyone gets some degree of bruising and swelling with facial soft tissue injections. I always forewarn my patients about the POTENTIAL risks of bruising and swelling with all facial injections. Because of the high vascularity to the head and neck area, it is not a question if bruising and swelling will occur, but rather how much. Most times, this is minimal.
The swelling that you experienced is not due to the Restylane. Even though we categorize soft tissue fillers as a relatively low, non-invasive procedure, each pass of the needle may cause limited trauma. This is especially true to the areas of the lips, cheeks, and nasal areas. Of course, individual technique of the injector does factor in.
We do advise our patients to avoid taking any anti-inflammatory agent (only exception is Tylenol) for two weeks prior to any facial soft tissue injections to reduce the chance of bruising. Following injections, we ask our patients to avoid any strenuous activity and exercising for 24 hours. Icing the areas definitely helps. The vast majority of the bruising and swelling typically dissipates after one week, but in some cases may last as long as two weeks.
I hope this helps, thanks for your question!
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