Is it bad to get fillers while you’re young and can they be used to prevent wrinkles and collagen loss?

No, you can have fillers when you're young. I recommend younger patients start early with anti-aging treatments for prevention. Volume and contouring of the face can be created with well-placed fillers (Voluma, Radiesse, Bellafill) and Sculptra. Implants or fat are alternatives. I recommend getting a formal evaluation with a facial sculpting expert. Best, Dr. Emer

Hi Realstargirl,The most important aspect of your aesthetic treatment is choosing your physician most carefully based on their skill, knowledge, experience, care, and natural artistic vision.  There is a saying that, "Nothing beats youth!" especially when it comes to facial aesthetics.  Any physician who is treating you at age 20 should be extremely conservative and limit treatment.  There is nothing more sad then a young woman who has been over "done" by a physician or nurse who lacks natural artistic vision.  It is terrible when these injectors treat young patients identically to how they treat their older patients.  We all have seen older patients who look funny because they are trying to look too young, unfortunately some young patients can actually look like these "younger looking older patients" because of irresponsible injectors. Enjoy your youth!!!  Good luck and be well.Dr. P 

Not that long ago, we routinely used fillers and neurotoxins to treat wrinkles and folds that had already formed in older individuals. However, more recently, we have begun to treat younger persons as a form of prevention. Here's how it works. Excessive sun damage leads inexorably to the breakdown of our native collagen, elastic fibers and dermal matrix; chronologic aging leads to the loss of volume in our faces due to fat shrinkage and displacement, as well as loss and changes in bone and muscle in our faces; and finally, the muscles of facial expression tend to become more hyperactive with time. The result of all this is the loss of tone in our skin, and the appearance of crepy skin, fine lines and deep folds. Now, of course, in persons passed 40, we have routinely been using volumizing fillers for years to reflate faces; fillers to smooth fine lines and wrinkles; skin boosters to hydrate and promote greater skin turgor and reduce crepyness: and neurotoxins (like Botox, Dysport, and Xeomin) to calm overactive muscles of facial expression (such as "scowl lines," "worry lines," and "crow's feet"). However, more recently, it has become clear that an ounce of prevention may translate into saving pounds of cure later on. So, experienced injectors have been routinely treating much younger persons, such as yourself, with these same agents as a form of prevention, the belief being that if these kinds of measures are instituted early enough, then over the course of a lifetime, the need for these kinds of interventions will be far less than if started later, and the need for aggressive, expensive, and invasive cosmetic surgeries may be obviated altogether. I began treating my daughters-in-law in fact when they were each about age twenty. I hope this information helps. Best of luck.