Sculptra – For Deep Facial Volume Restoration (Liquid Facelift)

One of my favorite fillers is Scultpra (L-Polylactic Acid).  I often tell patients that when they look at photographs from their earlier years, they will notice that their face is fuller.  This fullness is what gives a more youthful appearance to the face.  The key assumption is that the skin overlying that fullness should still have good elasticity.  If this is the case, then deep volume fillers like sculptra can be very effective. 

Sculptra works by inducing collagen production.  The collagen is what does the "filling".  It is a deep injection but is done in the office with only topical numbing medicine applied to the face.  I typically prefer to treat the whole face, but we can also inject specific areas as well.  This is what I discuss with each patient to customize their treatment plan. 

Also, I typically prefer to combine this procedure with re-surfacing of the skin as well.  This may involve an abltative laser or even an IPL(intense pulse light) procedure to give an optimal enhancement of the face.  Below is an example of this treatment.  This patient underwent sculptra injections to the face.  She has a nice result with a rejuvenated appearance.  Notice there is more fullness in her face.  It is just as powerful as fat grafting in my opinion. Her jowls are softened and there is almost a lift, hence the term "liquid facelift".

How do I know if I need a Facelift? What is a facelift?

Patients often ask me "Do I need a facelift ?" This then goes into the second phenomenon that I describe in the aging process, namely the loss of ligamentous support.  As we age, along with losing volume as I have described before, the tissues that "hold up" our face begin to lose strength as well.  Take a look at the image below to understand how the face ages.

This is where you begin to notice deeper lines and wrinkles around the naso-labial folds and jowls.  This is also very evident in the neck region as the tissue gets loose and just cannot « stay up » any longer.  The platysma muscle in the neck, which is contiguous with the SMAS (muscle soft tissue of the face), begins to droop and patients will notice banding of the muscle ( the so-called turkey gobbler neck).  It is at this point that the patient will likely need some surgical intervention to reverse these changes.

Once these changes begin to occur, a patient needs to consider facelift as a solution.  Facelifts have many different connotations for patients.  I think this is because there are so many different techniques and approaches that you all have heard about.  Mini-Facelift, Short scar facelift, LifestyleLifts (strong TV marketing), SMAS facelifts, Twilight lifts, Smartlifts, Deep Plane Facelifts just to name a few and I probably missed a couple in there !  The main goal of any of these procedures should be to restore the laxity that  and ligamentous support.  When I evaluate a patient, I take all these factors into consideration before deciding which technique fits that patient.  It is a mistake to try and fit one technique to all patients that walk in.  I try to be versed in all these techniques to assure natural results and long term results.