How long has Sculptra been around and what can be expected? Is it a smart choice?

Sculptra has been available worldwide since 1999, and FDA approved since 2004.  It is a "biostimulatory" filler, meaning that it increases your skin's own collagen production.  That collagen provides a scaffolding that lifts the skin and decreasing deep & shallow wrinkles.As with all injectables, patients experience mild to moderate discomfort with the injection, and bruising is a risk.Sculptra differs from other injectables in that it can cause bumps.  These bumps are the result of too much collagen formation.  In the last several years, techniques have evolved so that these bumps, should they occur, are small.  They typically cannot be seen, only felt.  And, they typically go away by themselves after a few months.  Newer techniques include reconstituting the product at least 48 hours in advance, using a more dilute concentration, and fanning the product (so as not to put too much in a single area).Sculptra achieves longlasting, natural results.  It works better than any other product for filling the periphery of the face (temples, submalar hollows, enhancing the jaw).

Sculptra was FDA approved in 2004. Sculptra aims to stimulate the body's collagen production to help build more volume while minimizing wrinkles. Many patients like Sculptra because they feel it gives them a more youthful look. It may last up to 2 years. It is uncommon for Sculptra, but it can overstimulate the production of collagen and create small lumps. Sculptra is now prepared at least one day in advance with a greater dilution of sterile water to help prevent these lumps from forming.  

Relax! Sculptra is a FABULOUS procedure, and its active ingredient, poly-lactic acid, has been in use in the form of Vicryl suture for generations!!  Sculptra is the liquified, crystallized form of Vicryl suture.  Ask any nurse friend you have (or physician) who has worked in an operating room.  Almost noone is allergic to it, and its safety profile is phenomenal!  As surgeons, we have used Vicryl suture to "sew" together structures INSIDE the body for many decades. It triggers the body to produce collagen where it is located, and the body normally RESORBS the Sculptra (or Vicryl suture) after about 6 months.....but the body's collagen response to the material from when it was there lasts much longer.  In my own patients, after 3 injection sessions of Sculptra over the course of 6 months, the results last just over 7 years.  Many patients return in the fourth year after injections for a single session, small "booster" or "topper" amount to put them back to the original peak improvement.  Then they return every 2-3 years for another single injection session "topper" or "booster."  This makes Sculptra a GREAT value.
Since you have already had three sessions of Sculptra, you know that you CAN get bruising (especially if you took in a food or medicine considered a blood thinner within a week before or 3 days after the injections) and you CAN get swelling---but even if you do, they go away.  Nodules CAN form, but are uncommon.  A nodule of Sculptra is a clump of collagen surrounding a clump of Sculptra.  To help prevent clumping of Sculptra, the injector needs to have added enough liquid (usually anesthetic 1% lidocaine) to the powdered Sculptra crystals, and YOU need to have done enough small, frequent, moderately-firm massages over the injection sites in the first 5 days after injection.  This helps break up any Sculptra clumps, thereby preventing collagen from growing around those Sculptra clumps, thereby preventing nodule formation.  Even if you get a nodule, it WILL GO AWAY.  It can take years to go away, however, so you are encouraged to massage it a lot if you feel one forming.
I hope that helps you!  
Debbie Kessler Hudak, MD, MHA    Oculoplastics Surgeon, All About Aesthetics, PC, Raleigh, NC