Sculptra Nightmare - Encino, CA

Linda, your face sounds like me. The lump on my right side got shot with kenalog steroid - I see a little going down on day 2- my doc just keeps brushing it off like oh this is coming along good.. I'm like wtf!!!! My right side seems fuller. He wanted to do more next week as I paid for 2 vials from get go and I said HELL NO!! So juvederm it will be to even the whole face! Sculptra is HELL!!! Good luck this weekend

Hey, are they brothers??? My doctor keeps saying, "Now Linda, everyone is not perfect"!!!!!!! Are you kidding me???? Thats not what I heard 7500 dollars ago. And that doesnt count all the touch ups!!! You should of seen what the Restalyne did to my lips. I had a large lump on my bottom lip that to this day is still visible. My lips went down right away except of course the lump.

I said the same thing..i wanted the sulptra so bad but then my face looked fat! ugh! great now my face matches my body and I look like a butter ball.hahaha I just wanted my pock marks to fill in a little but no they are still goin strong.. yuk

wth is up with doctors with their lame ass excuses..you effed up.admit it! I got a boob job and one is bigger than the other...you know what they told me? most women have one bigger than the other....I said I bet not the women that paid 8 grand for them~!!!! BS!

Well, my steroid shots in my Frankenstein lump did help 50 %. But, no my face is not the same on both sides. I still do have the bump. Its not as noticeable. But, it is still there. And as far as the Juvederm. I had that in my lips twice and it didnt stick. It worked for about 3 weeks and just disolved. But, then again the doctor injected me with more sculptra in my right cheek thinking that would mask the bump, but it never did and my right side is still flatter than my left.

HaHaHa, Ya Know there is nothing funny about this. But, if I didnt have this forum to vent too, I dont know what I would do. I really went in with high hopes. So much for that. I guess with all the money the movie stars have, thats why most of them look good. They probably go every frickin week and keep paying and paying until they are perfect. Sorry, I am a blue collar worker (someone has to be) and I cannot afford to keep going back because the doctor said it was going to look this way and it didnt.

Ha!!! They arent going to admit it. They dont want to get sued or worse yet give money back. That's not they're business. And yes, it is BS!!!!!!!!! I guarantee they are very wealthy while we are sitting here on our laptops crying over screwed up faces!!!!!!!!!

They are the used car salesmen of the medical profession. Sculptra is human experimentation.

Yep that's me. I still have a fatter face. Im in shape, not overweight at all and have a round face. I do not like it!!!!

Its all about money. And when you go in they are all like, "Oh you look so good". But, then when you go home your family sais, "Noo, you don't look good, your face is lopsided, you have a lump on your temple, your face is round, etc, etc..... These injections are so expensive. This is no Joke.

How did the Juvederm work?? I am at 14 months now and my face is evened out. The cortisone shot did take away the lump on my temple. But, I tell ya, this stuff is maintenance. Don't think your going to go in and this is just going to be it. Ive had to have Botox around my eyes every 4 months and I also had Juvederm put in my Jowls last Jan. but that is starting to wear off now. Also, under my chin the skin is still lose. And I dont have more money for Botox. That is what they said I needed. I thought the neck lift would have fixed that.

EXACTLY!!!!!!!!! So are you saying you did this on purpose!!!! What a stupid excuse!!!! My doctor did use that on me too though. When my face wasnt even for a whole frickin year he would always say, "Well, look at mine, it's not even"!!!!!!!!! What!!!!!!!!! LOL I tell ya. I wish I was rich so I could have everything done the way I want it. But, as you can see it goes on and on and on. You have to keep going back to have this and that fixed, evened out, etc.... If you arent rich forget it!!!

I feel your pain. This stuff is horrible

I had restylane in my lips and it caused bumps (still have one bump after 18 months) and my lips didn't stay plump at all. It went right down. The radiesse I would like to try. Do you know how long it lasts and how much it is.

i wouldn't put radiesse in my lips. if you don't like restylane and the other HA's they can be removed. radiesse can not. you have to wait for it to wear off. and never use ArteFill. it's permanent. i had radiesse done on my hands 2 weeks ago to hide the veins that were showing. my injector uses different fillers for different areas.

Im never putting anything in my lips again. After trying twice both times bad results. Would you mind if I asked how much the radiesse on your hands was?? I'm thinking of having my hands done. The veins are large and totally give away my age.

i'm 73 so it took a lot of filler, but there were some discounts. came to about $1500.

Yikes. Do you know how long it's supposed to last?? Also was it very painful?

she put a numbing cream on first so it wasn't really painful. was sore for a few days and i still have some slight bruising. she told me that could happen because of my age. radiesse is supposed to build collagen so i don't really know. it takes a lot of filler to hide veins and there still not completely hidden but much better. when i left she had ice on my hands over gauze and wrapped them. i said "how am i going to be able to drive", but i was okay. i guess you know before you have fillers you have to stop fish oil, vitamin E, acetamenophen and take lots of arnica starting a week before and keep taking it after the procedures. there's also a vitamin K with arnica cream to put on the areas to help with healing and bruising.

Thank you so much. I'm going for Botox on the 10'th I will ask her. I was thinking about doing laser on my hands and neck and chest. I'll see what she thinks is best. And if I do get the laser on my hands I'll send you a before and after. Mine can get really bad especially when it's warmer weather.

It's not permanent.

Unfortunately the collagen that is produced is permanant.

How long your own collagen will last is dependent on your specific profile. If you continue to damage your skin with poor diet, sun bathing, and stress, the collagen will break down and degenerate at a more advanced rate than someone who adheres to a more skin-healthy lifestyle. This is not to say that if you are displeased with Sculptra you should damage your skin. It is just a reminder that collagen synthesis and degradation is a byproduct of your own genetics and environment.

Linda, you are still early in your post treatment. It does start to get better at about 2 years but very slowly. I am only a few weeks away from year 3 and have noticed significant improvement in the volume. On the other hand, I question whether it will all go away. There is a percentage that I believe is collagen or scar tissue that will stay permanant or for a very long time. It does alter the original face shape because your original collagen and the Sculptra collagen break down at the same rate so you will still keep the facial shape at a much lower volume. At least that's what I have seen thus far. I am still hoping for further improvement but only time will tell.

Searching4~~Thank you sooooo much for your reply to my post!!! I don't like the shape of my face. It seems to be on the round side. But, I think that's from the sculptra. Is your face rounder than it was?? I'm having botox around my eyes tomorrow (eyelift). I do this about every 4 or 5 mon.. And it seems to lift my face up some. I like the results and I use my points so it's only about 300.00. I can afford that, it's the thousands I can't keep dolling out. But, as far as the sculptra I can't believe it lasts so long. I had no idea. I laugh to myself when I remember the doctor saying the down time would be 6 weeks and than I would know what I was going to have!!! LOL

Yes, unfortunately my face is a lot fuller than it originally was. Although, I am looking much more normal than when I was at my fullest, I still hate it. My doctor injected me much larger on the left side and it has not been uniform since. The volume has been going down but it is still obivious that the symmetry between the right and left is very off. I will never get any more injections as I feel I am lucky to come through this far. I am hoping because more was injected on the left iside it will just take longer to break down and eventually even out. These doctors are so eager to take people's money and they are full of false information. Some people here have said Sculptra shows up in biopsy at 3 years. I found a government study done on PLLA used as screws for knee repairs and the Sculptra took over 5 years to completely dissolve.

Here is a scientific study that gives some facts on degradation of this Sculptra crap: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15532997.

Over 5 years till it's all gone. That's not what my ps said. Someone is too busy injecting poison and not doing his homework. Arrgh!

Wow five years. That could be good or bad.

That was the case for me too and I went back and he put more sculptra in my right side which had less. It made it look even and so that is good. I understand you not wanting to go back to even it out.

using a dermaroller broke up a chin nodule, just thought I'd share this. but check with a doctor before doing this .

Oh Wow, how long did it take?? My whole face is kind of awkward.

it took a few days but It was really bothering. it was painful to do and I used a topical numbing agent. please check with a doctor before attempting this.

I was thinking about a derma roller. So it worked for you ?

He gave me kenalog apparently the juvederm under my eyes he injected was beyond too much. Swelling when down but as far as my cheeks n sculptra they still stick out .. He says to wait and at next appointment want me to get more sculptra at jaw line! My answer was HELLL NOO TO SYNTHETICS!!! Never again!!!

Oh no I'm sorry. 

Will this knot by my eye ever go away. I look like Frankenstein!!!!!!!!!!

Damn. Ask the doctor to put a steroid, maybe it'll go away or go down. Apparently we're in on this crap for 2-5 even 10 yrs!! Big mistake!!!! On our end

Not unless someone cuts it out.

Oh my gosh, what did he want to do match your face to your bumps??? I would have said, Hellll No too.

not all doctors are experienced injectors. just because they do it doesn't mean they are good. i use a nurse practitioner who specializes in dermatology. she also teaches how to use fillers. do your homework.

have you gotten better? how much sculptra did you have?

btw i am majorly disfigured from just a half vial

I had one vial 2/20/08. The worst day of my life. The first 3 years were the worst. I had a horrible extreme inflammatory response. That was very disfiguring and painful. Horribly painful. That lead to a massive infection that got into my eye socket bone and I got sepsis requiring hospitalization and surgical debridement. Now autoimmunity post sepsis and chronic illness and disfigurement not as bad. Had an ophthalmic plastic surgeon do his best but you can not remove sculptra like you can silicone. I still get flares and it was still there refractive particles with immune cells around them "foreign body response" at 3 years. The manufacturer claims to not know if it ever fully degrades. I have been told it probably does not. You can email me

DermRx you have no idea. Because your body tolerates it goody goody. For MANY of us it sparks an intense inflammatory response not easily controlled. That is a FACT. And also the reason the FDA has added a black box warning. It is not like silicone is true because microscopic particles whose sole mode of action is to initiate an immune response are more impossible to remove than is space occupying silicone. Those PLLA particles can only be removed once large enough granulomas form around them that the granuloma with the particle at the center can be cut out. For many of us, the inflammatory response to the remaining irritating particles continues for many years. The particles persist far longer (many years) than any cosmetic result. So DermRx go back to school. I have a MS in chemistry and have been forced to learn about sculptra because my body has an intense inflammatory response to it. I know more about it than most doctors pushing it as "very safe". It relies on the foreign body immune response to form scar tissue to the irritant foreign PLLA particles. Scar formation varies greatly from individual to individual. So you stop it with the she thinks she knows it all because she named herself DermRx and likely pushes this crap.

Thank you @sculptrasucks