It Felt Like a Big Ordeal but It Was Worth It - England, UK

I noticed that a lot of the people who post on here, post the day after their treatment, usually with some concern about swelling or bruising. I found there were very few detailed reports on exactly what people experienced day by day over a couple of weeks, so I decided to write one. I would have really found this useful before and immediately after my treatment so I decided to write a detailed report to help others.

I recently had a Juvederm treatment to my nose to mouth lines. Ultimately I'm pleased with the result but it's been quite a bumpy ride with a few ups and downs.

Before the treatment
I had been considering a Juvederm treatment on my nose to mouth lines for about two or three years before I finally went ahead with it at the age of 33. The lines had been making me feel self conscious for a while and I reached the point where I knew that if I didn't try Juvederm I would forever be wondering whether I should try it.
When I decided to take the plunge with Juvederm I'd had botox four times over the previous two years, so I was not a stranger to needles in my face.
I'd had my botox done by a very experienced nurse at a very reputable clinic and had always been pleased with the results. However, I had found that nurse to be quite impatient about answering my questions and not always that reassuring. I had a lot of questions to ask so I decided to go for a consultation at a different clinic to get all my questions answered, before making an appointment with the original nurse.
The nurse at the new clinic I went to was so friendly and patient and was cleared very experience, so I ended up booking an appointment with her.

The day of the treatment
I was so nervous and scared about the treatment. I wasn't afraid of having a needle in my face but I was really worried about what the results would be like. Would it be too obvious? Would it go wrong?
I hadn't told any friends or family that I was having this done (I knew they would tell me I didn't need it) so I felt like I was going into the treatment alone and without much support.
The treatment itself went smoothly and didn't cause me any discomfort. Of course you can feel a tiny sting when the needle goes in but that's not a problem. The needle went in about four times on each side.
At my initial consultation the nurse warned me that I would be likely to get some bruising on one side of my face because the crease was deeper there so should would have to inject deeper into my skin.

Immediately after
The whole area felt a bit tight and stiff and swollen. I expect that was probably the numbing cream and anaesthetic.
On the side of my face where the nurse told me to expect bruising it was immediately more obvious that I had been injected there. There were a couple of needle marks, some faint bruising and it looked quite full and plump.
On the other side of my face, the nose to mouth line was clearly plumped up but there was no evidence of any injection marks, bruising or swelling. It looked absolutely perfect and it stayed that way. I could see I would be in for more of a difficult journey with the other side.

After two hours
I was worried the results looked uneven but it did look like one side was more swollen so I reassured myself that was probably the reason.
I started to wonder whether it has been worth it. It was too soon to make a proper decision on this of course but I started to have some little doubts about whether it would be worth it. I was thinking I probably wouldn't do it again.

After 24 hours
The results still seemed uneven, which worried me. I could see there was still bruising and probably swelling too. I realised that there is a pay-off in that, although your smile lines look better when your face is at rest, you do like very slightly different when you smile. And I think the more Juvederm that you have put in, the more distorted your smile will look. That's something to be aware of.

After 48 hours
It had only been two days since the treatment but it felt like so much longer. Probably because it had been two days of non-stop worry. Because I'd decided not to tell anyone I was having this done, it made this recovery period quite lonely and I had lot of thoughts just going round in my head with no one to share them with.
I phoned the nurse to get her reassurance that the uneveness would just be swelling. I could see that the firmness of the problematic side was still moving and changing and the colour of the bruise was changing too. It was good to know that I still haven't reached the end result yet.

After 3 days
The 'good' side of my face initially had a faint ridge going down the smile line (it wasn't visible but I could feel it when I stretched out my skin). I've seen other people online describe this as a 'worm'. By day 3, on the 'good' side this ridge had now softened and couldn't be felt any more. It was still quite obvious on the other side though.

After 15 days
I think I've finally reached a point where I'm 95% happy with the result. Even up until the 14th or 15th day the swelling was still going down and I still wasn't sure if I was happy. I do think the nurse could have put I tiny bit less in the 'problematic' side but on the whole I'm happy. My smile lines now look much better than they did before. They're not completely gone and that's not what I was aiming for, because it would have looked unnatural. I've always had faint creases in that area since I was a young teenager.

Bruising
I thought I would talk separately about bruising because I think this is the most problematic aspect of Juvederm. I think it's very possible not to have any bruising, especially on the nose to mouth lines, as that is apparently an area least prone to bruising. One side of my face had absolutely no bruises at all, the other side had quite bad bruises.
I had this treatment at the beginning of a week off from work. I had made no plans for the 6 days following the treatment as I knew I may need to be 'in hiding' from anyone who knew me (I didn't want them to know I'd had it done!). I was glad I'd planned this recovery time because there were about 5 days when my bruising was very obvious.
You can see in the photos how the bruising progressed over 10 days.
I was able to do a good enough job of covering the bruises with make up to allow me to leave the house and see people I didn't know. The image shows how much I was able to cover the bruise when it was as its worse. You'll see it's still partly visible. In addition to my usual make up (concealer, foundation and powder) I also bought a Rimmel cover stick and painted it thickly on top of the bruise without smoothing it or rubbing it in. I also noticed that it was helpful to adda lot of bronzer to my face. The orange-tones of the bronzer helped counter-balance the blue tones of the bruise. In this picture I looked more orange than I would normally want to look, but I was happy to go in public like that to make the bruise as invisible as possible! I think if you're someone who doesn't usually wear a lot of make-up then it will feel and look weird to you to have to put on this much make-up to cover the bruise.
There were very faint traces of the bruise still visible 14 days later but it was totally coverable with my standard make-up after 7 days.

Would I do it again?
I think I am pleased enough with the results to do it again. I also think that once it wears off, the true state of my smile lines is going to seem particularly bad, so that will probably make me want to do it again.
If there is anything that puts me off doing it again it will be these reasons:
You need to allow a week of no work and no committments for the recovery (if you want to be able to keep it a secret). It's unusual to have times in your life where you can allow yourself a whole week of literally sitting at home and not socialising with anyone (it's also a little lonely and depressing!)
It's expensive. At the moment I'm lucky to have a decent disposable income but in future if I have children I would find it hard to just justify spending £300 on myself in this way.
The experience has been an anxious one. I'm quite a worrier anyway and it's felt like a lot to go through on my own. If I do it again I may find a friend I'm happy to tell about it so I have someone to go through it with.

A few other general tips and thoughts:

I think if you've taken the time to find a skilled and experienced doctor/nurse and you've done your research and you're confident with your choice, then after you've had the treatment done while you're waiting for it to settle down, you need to trust the doctor's expertise and try not to worry that they may have made a bad job. It can take a couple of weeks to fully settle down and because there are so many horror stories online about treatments that have gone wrong I think it's easy to assume the worst in that period. Try and trust your judgement at having chosen a doctor that knew what they were doing.

I was offered Juvederm 3 or Juvederm Volift, which lasts 3 or 4 months longer. If this is the first time you're having the treatment, go for the Juvederm that lasts a shorter amount of time. If it turns out that you don't like the result, you will be grateful that it's not going to last as long. Once you know you like the results and you've found a skilled doctor, use the longer lasting one for your second treatment.

You'll be paying for full syringes of filler so you may feel inclined to have the nurse use all of the syringe so you feel you're getting your money's worth. Be careful here. Make sure the nurse puts in the amount you actually need rather than just adding more for the sake of it, because there's some left. That could lead to you looking over-filled.

Facial fillers are still a relatively new thing. I know millions of Juvederm treatments have been carried out, so they're not new in that sense, but I think there are still many more advances to come. In another 10 years I think techniques will have moved on a lot and we'll look back at now and think - what were we doing?! Those techniques were so primitive!