Are There Specific Steps to Reduce Swelling and Bruising After a Radiesse Injection?

Don't take any blood thinners 2 weeks before and after treatment, such as vitamin E, fish oil, aspirin, Aleve, other nonsteroidals, and any herbal supplements.  Cold packs, keeping your head elevated and arnica tablets and/or cream (we like Trameel cream) can all help.  

Undergoingfiller injections include the risk of running into after effects such asbruising and swelling. These are not life threatening as long as they healwithin a given time. Most often swelling starts to become noticeable within 24hours after injection while bruising may take 1 to 2 days to show up. Thesewill usually heal on their own. Swelling usually subsides within 24 hour theearliest and 2 weeks the latest. Bruising completely goes away in a couple ofweeks. However, there are still methods that you can do to manage these andhasten up healing.
-Elevate your head when sleeping.
- Icethe swollen area to reduce the swelling. Do this 10 to 15 minutes every 3 hourswhen you are awake.
- Avoidvigorous exercises.
-Arnica may also be helpful in reducing swelling.
- Avoidblood thinning medications prior and after treatment.
Ifswelling and bruising lasts more than it should, visit your doctor for a followup checkup so he or she can check if anything is out of the ordinary.

It's important to apply ice packs for the first 48 hours after Radiesse injections to reduce swelling.  Also, I encourage patients to refrain from anti-coagulants, including aspirin, for one week pre- and post-procedure.  Arnica can reduce bruising if taken prior to injection.   Nutritional supplements should be scrutinized for their contents and potential side effects; gingko biloba and St John's wart are just two such supplements which can increase bruising.

Greetings~

The best possible thing to do after your Radiesse injections for bruising and swelling is ICE. 10-15 minutes every 2-3 hours is great for the first 24-48 hours.  Avoid strenuous exercise...raising your heart rate will increase swelling and may worsen bruising early on. Don't massage the treated areas. When you sleep, sleep with your head slightly elevated and try not to sleep on your face.  Our patients have also found oral arnica pellets and topical cream helpful (Boiron arnica or Heel Traumeel).  Hope that helps.

Good luck~

Dr. Grant Stevens

Some swelling is expected after Radiesse injections. Icing the area for 10 minutes every 2-3 hours while awake the first 2 days after injections is helpful.  I would limit physical exertion for the first two days as well.

What is important is the preparation beforehand.  Unless prescribed by a physician, I ask patients to avoid any blood thinners, such as aspirin, other non-tylenol pain medications, vitamin E, fish oil, gingko biloba, for 10 days before injections.  That decreases the risk of bruising.

Making sure that the injections are performed by a board certified dermatologist or plastic surgeon with proper training and experience in doing Radiesse injections.