What is Sculptra Aesthetic and How is it Different From Injectable Fillers of the Face?

The growth of injectable facial fillers has been explosive over the past ten years.  I love the products and their outcomes, as they require no downtime and minimal pain.  Facial injectable fillers are ideal for immediately correcting facial volume loss and filling wrinkles in the face.  These products are best for a patient seeking an immediate boost.  They are also completely reversible, and are made up of naturally occurring products, such as hyaluranic acid, which are already in your body.  At our Carolina Facial Plastic Surgery Center offices in Charlotte and Columbia, we use Restylane, Perlane, and Juvéderm as our facial fillers of choice.  They are injected into the face to immediately fill or volumize areas of concern.

Sculptra Aesthetic is an injectable product used in the face to ultimately increase facial volume, but it is NOT a facial filler.  Sculptra Aesthetic, poly-l-lactic acid, is an injectable substance that stimulates your own body to produce new collagen.  This new collagen will SLOWLY add new volume to the face.  In young faces with good volume and elasticity, it may take only one treatment to give that added youthful “pop” to the face.  In faces requiring more volume, it can take up to four injection sessions to get the desired amount of new collagen. Each session is spaced out over approximately three weeks, and since the result is dependent on the body producing NEW collagen, it will take about three months for the new collagen to become noticeable.  The advantage of creating new collagen is that the effects of Sculptra last much longer, 2-4 years, as opposed to other filler products which last 3-12 months.

In previous blogs, I have discussed my 3D facial topography theory that I use to analyze facial structure.  I believe a face with the right amount of volume will reflect light and have smooth transitions from one area of the face to the next.  In patients with volume loss, the smoothness is lost and the wrinkles create multiple shadows on the face.  The shadows make the face appear tired and aged.  I inject Sculptra into the natural fat pockets of the face to add volume to the actual area of the face that has lost the volume.  This can subtly change the entire shape of the face and smooth the transitions to add a youthful and beautiful appearance to the face.

Dr. Jonathan Kulbersh is the founder of Carolina Facial Plastic Surgery.  He is a facial plastic surgery specialist, and has offices in Charlotte, North Carolina and Columbia, South Carolina.

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Hear what Dr. Paul Nassif of Botched says about Dr. Kulbersh
Dr. Paul Nassif Hear what Dr. Paul Nassif of Botched says about Dr. Kulbersh

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