Why isn't prolotherapy for facial ligaments a common treatment??
I keep coming back to ligament laxity playing a critical role in facial aging. Yet the only option I hear mentioned for addressing this is extensive facelift surgery (deep plane, SMAS, etc.). I don't understand why this has to be the case when prolotherapy exists. For context, prolotherapy involves injecting dextrose or PRP directly into ligaments to trigger controlled inflammation, stimulating collagen production that effectively reduces ligament laxity. It has solid evidence for ligaments for knees, shoulders, and is already used on the face for TMJ, and is used extensively in sports medicine and for Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. So why aren't we using prolotherapy to strengthen facial support ligaments? I feel like it could be a great option for structural facial aging, potentially delaying facelift surgery when skin laxity isn't the main issue yet. Yet I can't find any clinic doing this. Is there something I'm missing? Some might say it's technically challenging, but we're already doing prolotherapy for TMJ on the face, and other aesthetic procedures (precise filler placement in high-risk zones,PDO threads) are just as demanding. I can't think of why this couldn't be done. Would love to hear from practitioners with relevant expertise. Has anyone tried this? Looked into it? Know why it would categorically not work? Would love to hear your thoughts as someone nerding out on this for the past 3h :)





