Your question raises some important points that are not frequently understood by patients receiving Bellafill. The first is that the collagen stimulating effect of Bellafill is gradual, and you will probably not be able to appreciate any difference in the volume and appearance of the treated area for at least three months. The second point is that the bovine collagen contained in the Bellafill injection, which is 80% of the total volume of the syringe, is gradually resorbed, even as the surrounding fibroblasts are stimulated to produce more collagen. Early in the collagen building process, the rate of resorption of the bovine collagen may actually outstrip the deposition of your native collagen, and the treated area may actually look more hollow than it did in the first week after the injection, when the volume was augmented by the swelling associated with the injection. However, longer term, the PMMA microspheres that make up 20% of the total volume of a Bellafill injection remain, even as the volume of your native collagen deposition increases, and you begin to see the additive effect of these two components three months after your injection. Should you continue to receive Bellafill injections, you will also notice, over time, that you require smaller and smaller volumes of Bellafill to achieve the desired effect, because you are building on the foundation laid by your previous injections of Bellafill.
