Restylane for Cellulite? Have you used Restylane for cellulite? How were the results?

A truly adequate treatment for cellulite remains elusive. Injectable fillers of any composition are not a solution either. Even if it could make the skin appearance better, the volume of filler and its cost would make it impractical.

Cellulite is difficult to treat because it occurs on a large area of the body and it involves a network of fibrous bands that aren't effectively or evenly holding back fat under the skin.  This leads to a 3-dimensional pattern like a mattress.  The treatments that have been used to treat cellulite that I have personally seen results on are Thermage and Velashape.  The former actually works to variable degrees depending on the tip and the energy used, as well as the skill of the person performing the procedure.  With the proper treatment of both devices, a modest and sometimes very good result can be accomplished.  Thermage is relatively uncomfortable in that area, is expensive and takes time to see the results, but I have seen very good results with only one treatment.  Velashape isn't painful and is less expensive initially (6 treamtents over 6 weeks is our protocol) but then you need to maintain it every month to every other month indefinitely so it adds up.  I think that Restylane, which is a great filler in the appropriate areas, would have absolutely no benefit for cellulite.  1 syringe of restylane is 1/5 of a teaspoon, so you can imagine that this would be impractical.  There are other devices which I have not personally used that are reported to be effective, such as Smoothshapes and Triactive.  There are reports of subcision (surgically interrupting the fribrous bands) being effective and some people also think that laser lipolysis might be effective.