Is it safe or even wise to get Restylane injections in my face before or after bilateral total hip replacement surgery?

There is no evidence that facial fillers have any effect on implants on the body or vice versa.  However, with facial or dental surgery it is best to wait 1-3 months to get fillers.  Cannulas limit complications. Best, Dr. Emer.

Dear sfgirltoo:This is a very reasonable question! We live in an environment where we, human patients are bombarded by germs. Viruses, bacteria and yeast are the 3 main concerns regarding infection when placing a prosthetic device in the body.In general, with proper anti-septic care, particularly using alcohol and iodine or chlorhexidine prep on the area to be injected with a filler, your risk of injection is rare. Concerns do exist regarding biofilms on injectables and these too are rare.I recommend my patients to wait 3 months or more before or after a prosthetic is placed for filler injections (molecules which last more than a few hours or days in the body) and to receive written clearance from the prosthetic surgeon. This is not the case with single small molecules such as Botox where a 2 to 3 week window should suffice for the body's normal immune defense system to clear the "germs". I hope this is helpful. All the best!

I would recommend that you have the injections at least one month before the hip surgery and check with your orthopedic surgeon about the injections after you have the hip replacement. I am not aware of any report or a problem with prostheses infections after a restylane injection but the orthopedic surgeon may have different information and he is reponsible for your hip.