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  • Injectable Fillers, Volumizers, and Neurotoxins: What's the Difference?
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So aside from surgery, we also have other options for rejuvenating your face and body. And those are some of the nonsurgical options. The, at the cornerstone of the nonsurgical options really are the fillers and the neurotoxins. So as you can see there's a whole host of products than I use. Some of these products here are used for as fillers so they fill lines. Commonly the nasolabial lines, the marionette lines, to plump up the cheeks to help reduce the under eye bags or the sunken cheek look. So there's lots of places on the face that we can put these products.

This is Radiesse, a calcium based product. This is Restylane and Juvederm, two very well known products. These are essentially similar components, similar products from different companies. And again, when choosing between any of these products speak with your plastic surgeon to see what they're most comfortable with.

This is a product called Sculptra which I like to use the term volumizer. I don't like to consider this a filler because it doesn't fill lines. What is does, it adds volume to the entire area. So this works great to replace the fat you've lost in your cheek. The temples as we age, sometimes the temples get sunken in because there is fat in the face. And the normal aging process or weight loss will cause you to lose fat in your face. So Sculptra works really well. I have used Sculpltra also in other parts of the body in order to help increase the volume of other parts of the body.

These two products on the end, these are the neurotoxins. This is Botox which everybody has heard of. And this is Dysport which is a, one of the latest neurotoxins from Medicis who are the makers of Restylane. Both these products are neurotoxins so the way they work is by paralyzing the muscles. So the people that have, when they squint and have the lines here or they raise their eyebrows and have a lot of forehead lines. These products can be injected, it paralyzes the muscles and therefore you don't get the lines.

The products are extremely popular. Over 3 million injections were done over this past year, of these neurotoxins. They are extremely safe when done by properly trained physicians. And the results tend to last anywhere between three to five months. I usually tell my patients it last about four months but it doesn't, you don't wake up one day and it's gone. It wears off very slowly. So I have some patients that come in every three months to be re-injected. I have other patients that stretch it out to six months. So again, it's personal preference in terms of when you want to come back to be treated.

But as you can see, we have a real variety of products I can get off the shelf. In order to either reduce the appearance of lines, add volume to your cheeks or just make your entire face look rejuvenated. So these are great products when injected by a properly trained physician. And the results are extremely predictable and oftentimes there is really no recovery.

Injectable Fillers, Volumizers, and Neurotoxins: What's the Difference?

Dr. Matthew Schulman runs down the line of several available products used in facial rejuvenation, explaining what each product is, what it does, and how it is used.