Tips for Avoiding Radiesse Pain

Facial fillers are useful to correct areas of facial atrophy, including the lips, nasolabial folds, and face. Injection is usually performed using small gauge needles that are prepackaged with the sterile syringe.
Minimizing pain is an important part of your overall experience. There are many ways to minimize the pain associated with facial fillers, including the topical application of lidocaine creams, local anesthetic blocks, and local injection of anesthetic prior to injection.
The most recent development in facial filler injections has been acheived by mixing the anesthetic with fillers such as Radiesse prior to injection. This reduces the pain associated with the injection and obviates the need for local anesthetic blocks.

There are several steps to minimize pain with Radiesse:


Pre and post injection icing can help numb the sensation to the area

Proper injection technique can eliminate most of the discomfort associated with it

Dental blocks and topical anesthetics are not necessary in my practice for Radiesse (see point above)

"Tricks of the trade", in which each injector employs including various distraction techniques and others to minimize discomofort


Radiesse injection should be a relatively pain free experience.

There is no filler procedure which "has to be painful". There are many tools in the analgesia armamentarium which can minimize or eliminate pain from the technique. The first step is to apply topical numbing cream for about 15 minutes. The second step is to give small pinpoint injections of lidocaine in the spots where the Radiesse needle will enter the skin. The third step is to mix the Radiesse with a little bit of lidocaine. This approach has been very helpful to my patients and makes the procedure much more comfortable

My advice is to have your physician use numbing cream which needs to be applied 1 hour before the procedure and rubbed into the skin. I also recommend mixing the Radiesse with a small amount of lipocaine with epinephrine (adrenaline) to decrease the pain and to prevent bruising. I also apply ice or cold compresses to the skin immediately before and after injections.

I usually inject the area with minute amounts of local anesthetic with epinephrine that will numb the area and shrink the blood vessels so that it is less likely that the Radiesse could be injected in them. Some people mix the Radiesse with a local anesthetic bot this doesn't totally eliminate the pain.