RefinedMD

Oh Why didn't I do this sooner! I've always had dark circles under my eyes, but in the last 10 years or so, they've gotten a lot worse. Not only do I get the "You look so tired" remark on a daily basis, but It's so bad I don't even want to look in the mirror anymore I decided to do something about it. Searching the internet I found realself.com. The stories and reviews posted here gave me some hope that Juvaderm or Restylane might work for me. I did some local research and decided to go to Refined Dermatology, the practice of Dr. Steven Swangel located here in Los Gatos. At my initial consultation, I was impressed by all the office staff, and especially Eric, who is very knowledgeable and advised me that Restylane would be a better choice than Juvaderm for the eye area. I then met with Dr. Swangel and after a careful examination of my eye circles, he explained how he would go about using Restylane correct my eyes. He said that my eye hollows and dark circles were fairly extensive so fixing them would be more complicated. Dr. Swengel assured me that he would try his best. Of course, I was worried about bruising and swelling. Dr Swengel said he sees bruising infrequently since he uses and cannula to inject the Restylane. He did add that would probably experience some swelling. I won't call the procedure painless, but it was certainly tolerable. Dr. Swengel had to use three syringes of Restylane. As for the result, It's been only three days and I still have some puffiness under the eyes, but already I see a big difference. I will see Dr. Swangel in another couple of weeks since I may need another syringe for touch up. My eyes were that bad. I'm sorry I don't have a really good "before" picture. The one I posted really doesn't show how bad my eyes were. I took the "after" picture on Friday, just one day after the procedure. My eyes are still puffy but I can definitely see improvement. I have so much confidence in Dr. Swengel now, that I'm going to have him use Bellafill in my Naso-labial folds. They're pretty bad too. I asked about Restylane for this area but Dr. Swangel says Bellafill is better. He said it gives a smoother result, causes less bruising, and the result is permanent. It costs more, but not that much more. I can't say that Dr. Swengel is inexpensive, but I am more than happy with the result.