How Safe is It to Use Restylane Between the Eyebrows?

Dysport and Botox are the first part of the treatment plan in relaxing the underlying condition (muscle contraction) that is leading to the lines, wrinkles, and furrows.  

If the lines are still present after two weeks, the lines may be considered "static" or permanent regardless of the muscles being put to rest.  At that point, using smooth HA fillers ( Juvederm/Restylane) may be a good option to soften and fill these areas.

Many injectors agree that a combination treatment approach is sometimes best but to make best use of your time and finances, fillers should only be secondary if the Botox or Dysport did not meet your goals.  

Although using the filler in this area is "off label", it is an accepted standard of practice.  As with all techniques, an experienced injector will be able to approach this with safety and efficacy.

 

It's safe,  but you have to be careful.  That is because the risk of embolizing (getting filler into a vessel)  one of the small arteries that supplies the skin between the eyebrows seems to be higher in this area.  If one of these vessels gets occluded by intravascular injection of restylane or any filler, an area of skin between the eyebrows will die, leaving a wound that has to be dealt with, obviously not a desirable situation.

Many patients want that crease between the eyes to go away, and if is well-formed, long-standing and deep, Botox alone will not take care of it. All Botox can do is stop the creasing over time and maybe the crease will improve or not get worse as a result.

When filler is used between the eyebrows, care should be taken to inject very slowly and smoothly and inject while withdrawing the needle. This technique lessens the chance that some filler will get injected into a vessel. Another precaution I take is to put a finger over the orbital rim to put pressure on the vessels. That will prevent any filler from going back toward the eye and collapse the vessels in the area to be injected, lessening the chance that filler will get into them.

Frown line injections are not uncomon and complications related to those injections are extremely rare.

Filler products, just like botox receive FDA approval for particular sites of treatment. Restylane is approved for volume enhancement in the folds.

Injecting into other areas is common medical practice but is, by the book, off label use of the product.

With that being said, typical complications are essentially the same as filling other areas of the face - irregularity of fill, erythema reactions, and skin injury. One specific concern for glabellar frown filling is injection into an artery or vein, which is very difficult to do. An experienced injector would stay superficial to those vessels when filling that area. Occular complications can only theoretically occur with inadvertent intravascular injections.

I use filler products in the frown area to assist in smoothing after botox in many situations and patients tend to be very happy with their results.

Find an experienced injector and chances are you will be too.

All the best