POSTED UNDER Sculptra REVIEWS
The Whole Truth Please
ORIGINAL POST
I am writing in this particular site because after...
kooieMarch 25, 2009
$2,000
I am writing in this particular site because after spending an hour or so in here I am shocked at how misleading the info is in regards to sculptra. The truth is that granulomas form - often times they can be seen. The granulomas are permanent and extremely disfiguring.
This material sculptra is a foreign body and your system will attack it as long as it remains in you. This is an implant, its not like other fillers. While the benefits only last 2 years the granulomas are forever unless you excise them. This is not easy to do without causing more damage. My hope is that this info will help you to make a more informed decision - go with a filler that if lumps form they can be removed in a less damaging manner.
Please understand that not all complications can be fixed with more plastic surgery. My life has forever been changed. My photo's are now used at many training conferences- there is no help for me, I hide away and have no life. Its been 4 years since I had the implant and I have tried several methods to remove them and they have not changed one bit, and in fact I am more disfigured. Please research this.
This material sculptra is a foreign body and your system will attack it as long as it remains in you. This is an implant, its not like other fillers. While the benefits only last 2 years the granulomas are forever unless you excise them. This is not easy to do without causing more damage. My hope is that this info will help you to make a more informed decision - go with a filler that if lumps form they can be removed in a less damaging manner.
Please understand that not all complications can be fixed with more plastic surgery. My life has forever been changed. My photo's are now used at many training conferences- there is no help for me, I hide away and have no life. Its been 4 years since I had the implant and I have tried several methods to remove them and they have not changed one bit, and in fact I am more disfigured. Please research this.
Replies (85)
March 25, 2009
Hi Sharon,
Thanks for your support.
I guess what I am finding here on Real Self that leaves a bad taste in my mouth are the ads you have posted on sculptra, its just strange to see a site that is suppose to "Keep It Real" and suppose to help people make an informed decision be supported with this type of paid advertising.This advertising is big and bold and catches the eye - it says "Real Self supports sculptra" Your not neutral at all. Also I have been in and out of this site for about a month, I have posted a couple of times to doctors who don't tell the whole story. I saw several posts that were negative towards sculptra and now all of a sudden there are all these strange posts about how absolutely wonderful sculptra is. Everyone is silly happy with the stuff. Which is fine but its an about face... These posts seem fake. Its your site you can do as you please, but please know its important to me that the information regarding sculptra is truthful. This is my mission in what little life I have left in me. If you saw my photo I am sure you can understand.
Best Regards,
Koo
March 25, 2009
Hi Sharon,
Since you are in California you might want to go to Dr. Rebecca Fitzgerald in LA for a consultation. She is one of the top doctors using this product and works closely with a handful of doctors who have been using Sculptra since its inception. I believe that a lot has changed since you were treated. The problems that you suffered can now be overcome thanks to better knowledge gained from more extensive clinical experience.
Hope things improve for you.
March 26, 2009
Hi Koo,
Thanks a lot for clarifying your comments and for your willingness to discuss.
RealSelf doesn't accept any direct advertising from doctors or companies. We do display Google ads, but we don't choose the subject matter of these ads. Anyone who buys the term "Sculptra" (or similar) on Google will be displayed, so there is always the chance that an anti-Sculptra site would also appear. We display Google ads because RealSelf is free for all consumers and doctors to participate, so this offsets our costs.
On a personal note, I can assure you we do our best to keep spam off the site. We read and verify every review before it's published (what I'm doing right now, actually) and also monitor every comment for spam. I concede that there are occasionally suspect reviews, but I don't believe that all, or even most, of the positive reviews are spam. In fact, many are from members who have contributed other things to the site (photos, comments, questions, etc) over a period of months or even years.
We try our hardest to be facilitators of cosmetic treatment conversations rather than moderators. I am, however, sorry to hear some of the doctors' opinions have upset you. Within certain limits (spam, self-promotion, etc) we let doctors and consumers say what they want about their experiences. I think this helps to paint an overall picture of the "truth" - in Sculptra's case, 40% of people were unhappy and/or had lumps, but some people were also happy with it. For someone doing research, I think this quantifies the risk/reward in pretty real terms.
Thanks for letting me hijack your review space to explain ourselves a bit better. :) If you have any ideas for ways we could improve the site, please get in touch. Our inboxes are always open!
Many thanks,
--Sharon
March 26, 2009
Hi Sharon,
I appreciate your explaining how things work here.
Your statement
"in Sculptra's case, 40% of people were unhappy and/or had lumps, but some people were also happy with it. For someone doing research, I think this quantifies the risk/reward in pretty real terms."
I would like to remind everyone that this 60% of happy sculptra 'victims'you mention haven't discovered they have a problem yet -
This is not just my opinion, this is science.
Sculptra is a synthetic agent, as long as the foreign agent is present, the body can continue to cause the reaction, that reaction are the lumps or granulomas you see. These reactions can occur up to ten years out.
Synthetic agents should not be used because of this, as was said by Dr. Arnold W. Klein on this site " The granulomas are foreign substances that can and do cause foreign body reactions. Permanent agents can cause permanent problems! It is much better to use biologic agents such as collagen and hyaluronic acids such as Restylane and Juvederm.
March 25, 2009
Thanks for your post HKKitty,
I appreciate your tip on Dr. Fitzgerald. I will contact her, however I have to tell you that I have seen or contacted several of the very top doctors about my issue. I have contacted even the designer of this product in Europe.
Many techniques have been tried and I have been even more disfigured. I shall post that photo for all to see what happens when you try to fix this. Its worse then the lumps.
You are correct that things have changed since I was treated, but only in how the implant is injected and mixed- there are no new successful techniques on getting rid of the granulomas, especially if they are large and have been there for a while.
Many many new victims of this product are coming to me everyday. I get at least 3 e-mails a day asking for advice, I see damage that is worse then mine. I will see about posting those photos after I get permission. These are recent sculptra victims- some from just 3 months ago. Many more victims will come forward as they realize they have a problem. Most people are working with the doctors that did this to them and being told, be patient the lumps will go away. So like me they will be patient, wait and wait, maybe go 2-3 years as their doctors will ask, then they realize "Oh crap, these aren't going away" they then realize they have permanent or very long lasting damage.
The granulomas can rear their ugly little heads up to ten years later. I am not telling you all anything that can't be backed up by facts. I have been dealing with this for 4 years and believe me I have learned a thing or two. Don't go by my nightmare, just go to Google and type in sculptra lumps and see all what comes up, don't go to one site go to many, check out the journal articles.
Please understand that anyone who has had this crap implanted can have a problem and it may not show up until later. Believe me its not worth the risks. The issue here is the mess can't be removed - this is not a trivial matter and are you all willing to risk that the granulomas could show up years down the road. By the way these lumps aren't soft, they are very hard, bone hard. They are heavy, mine are very heavy-
You can all sing the praises of scultpra as much as you want but any honest doctor will tell you that what I am saying is true, there are risks that is the message I am trying to put out- nothing more. If a doc wants to say there are no risks with this product, I 'd run the other way. I am not saying there can't be successes - there are and this is talked about all the time, but I want to talk about the fact that it can go wrong, the damage can be permanent. Really a good doctor would steer you to juvederm or resty which are hyaluronic acids, sculptra is a polylactic acids. I am just saying there are risks please don't write and tell me how wonderful it is... ok ok I get that, but there can be a risk of granulomas that are difficult to get rid of.
I have chased this thing for years, spent thousands, seen the best of the best docs, the good ones say leave them alone you'll look worse if they come out. A bad doc ....oh yeah he's all over this, " I can fix it, let me put some kenalog in it, let me bop a needle in and out", yep that can be done and its can cause worse damage.
Look can we just warn there might be a risk... thats all I am asking.... Just be honest, use the same excitement you use to sing the praises of sculptra to sing the risks. While there are problems with the product there can be problems with the doctor who is injecting it. I 'd rather not blame the doctors though, I believe the product is just plain risky and difficult to work with - even in the most experienced hands and I also believe there are more inexperienced hands then there are experienced so it becomes doubly risky. You all can figure it out ...its not rocket science.
March 25, 2009
One short message... Doctors please pay attention here...
The FDA panel of doctors that approved the use of Sculptra in the USA are now saying they were lied to about the risks...
(For those who don't know Dermik is the company who distributes Sculptra)
I quote
"The product never would have been granted approval under the standard complete pma application criteria. The key panel concerns were: brief period of patient follow-up, limited number of patients in clinical trials,narrow patient demographics, inconclusive analytic results regarding safety and efficacy; poor understanding of mechanism of action; no histology provided; inflammatory response and nodule formation in 52% of subjects."
AND.....
" We are dismayed by dermik's blatant disregard for patient safety and law and strongly encourage the fda to act immediately to protect the public by stopping this behavior."
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfMAUDE/Detail.CFM?MDRFOI__ID=979482
March 29, 2009
Please note that I have always been treated in Paris with the European Brand (apparently identical) New-fill. Perhaps the lack of extensive training and follow-up by its US manufacturer of Scuptra(New-fill) is the cause of so many negative results. I would be a great case study- having used it since July of 2001. Any plastic surgeon or dermatologist out there who wants to see what sculptra looks like after 14 sessions over eight years with 2 vails each; doing around the eyes in 8 of them. Never a nodule never a bump. Why is my experience unique if it's not at least partially due to the level of expertise? I am just asking.
March 26, 2009
Keith you asked:
"Why is my experience unique if it's not at least partially due to the level of expertise? I am just asking."
Here is why ....
It is successful for treating hollow cheeks, for filling big depressions and for the non-surgical face lift, but it is poor for the treatment of fine lines and wrinkles.
Filling large depressions and for facial contouring this is arguably the best of the lot.
Those of us in here whining and complaining had the injections pushed on us for wrinkles.
This material does not act as a dermal filler, which would be injected superficially to smooth wrinkles, but needs to be placed deeply below the muscles to be a safer and more effective agent.
This why you are happy and we are not.
March 27, 2009
Yes, Kookie, you are correct about the appropriate use of Sculptra. And a highly experienced doctor should advise the patient of that. I believe that in the past it was used as a fill in the eye area to plump out hollows around the eyes. The problem there is that the skin under the eyes is very thin and even if injected deeply, the product is still close to the surface of the skin. I'm not sure why people are developing granules as Sculptra is supposed to dissolve after being injected. The filling out of the face comes from its alleged ability to stimulate the body to produce more of its own collegen.
From what I understand from the doctor who treated me, Sculptra is consider inappropriate for the eye area. And from reading the posts on RealSelf, it appears that the people who experienced granules or nodules primarily had Sculptra injected in the eye area, whereas those who were either satisfied or at least didn't develop granules seemed to have the product injected in more fleshy areas of the face.
The doctor I went to only injected my temples and cheeks. She said I need to fill out one side of my lips (only one side as that side was small than the other) and specifically said she'd use Restylane for that -that Sculptra was not good in that area of the face. Her strategy for me is to fill out the temples and cheek area - not under the eyes. She said Juvederm and Restylane are usually used there, however she recommended using nothing there and just by filling out the rest of the face, the eye area would look better.
I'd like to note that I had Juvederm injected under my eyes last year and the results were horrific. Had two lumps under my eyes for about 8 months. Any I went to a top plastic surgeon.
In reality, every procedure works better or worse on different people. The key is to find a doctor who specializes in a specific product as they are likely to have the kind of clinical experience that gives them first hand information about what will likely be successful.
I do not consider 56% very much of an endorsement.
As I puruse this wesite further,after I found it back in the winter when I found out the dr. that scarred and damaged me had left the company, I am even more thankful to keep finding more and more helpful information which I am sorry I did not find before I let them cut me and give me nerve damage that will take years to improve if ever. " THE PEOPLE WHO HIDE BEHIND THE RESPECTED TERM OF MD ARE LEGAL CRIMINALS." Well said my friend. The day is coming...the investigation going on is continuing to shine light into their smoke and mirrors operation. I'm so glad I read this posting. God bless you and from my heart to yours, they will face retribution in the Lake of Fire even after the Law takes care of them here before time is finished. I know I won't quit going against them even after I get my money back. Until the laws are changed to where this type of thing will not be allowed to go on in this country and when a Dr. loses his license in one state, they can move to another state and become licensed there. This has to stop. There are registeries for sex offenders that are easier to access than ones for horrible Drs. that move around reeking havoc behind closed doors. Oh yes the day is coming. They allow this kind of thing in third world countries, and here in this country they should be banished.
Take care,
2trusting