Botox, Xeomin, Dysport
What happens during this procedure?
A physician injects very small amounts of purified botulinum toxin.
When treating fine lines and wrinkles, the physician injects botulinum toxin into targeted muscles on the face or neck. This temporarily relaxes the targeted muscles, causing fine lines and wrinkles to diminish. The effect lasts about 3 to 4 months — and sometimes longer.
When treating excessive sweating, a physician injects directly into the skin on the underarm. A single treatment can provide up to 6 months of relief from excessive sweating.
Will I lack facial expressions after treatment?
Physicians want their patients to look natural. To do this, they inject just enough to weaken and relax the targeted muscles without affecting other muscles. This allows patients to maintain their natural facial expressions.
Will I lose my sense of feeling where I have the injections?
No. This treatment does not affect your ability to feel.
When is it safe to have another treatment?
You can have another treatment when the excessive sweating or lines and wrinkles return. With repeat treatment for lines and wrinkles, the muscle may thin, leading to longer-lasting results.
Is there downtime?
Most people return to the everyday activities immediately. As soon as you leave the treatment room, you can apply makeup.
What must I do after the procedure?
To prevent the injected substance from spreading to areas where you do not want it, you’ll need to take a few precautions:
- Do not rub or massage the areas where you received the injections.
- If you apply makeup, take care not to press or rub it in.
- Wait two hours before you engage in strenuous physical activity. This includes lifting heavy items, working out, and any other physical activity that raises your heart rate.
What are the possible side effects?
If a patient develops side effects, these tend to be mild and temporary. The injections, rather than the botulinum toxin itself, cause most mild side effects. For example, a patient may occasionally bruise. If this happens, the bruising lasts about 1 week.
After receiving injections, people have experienced:
- Swelling
- Redness
- Soreness
- Bruising
- Mild headache (uncommon)
- Weakness in a neighboring muscle, leading to a temporarily droopy brow or eyelid (rare)
- Signs and symptoms of botulism, including problems breathing, swallowing, or speaking (very rare)
Fillers
What happens when I get a filler?
The procedure varies with the filler your physician will use, the part of the body to be treated, and your medical history. Here are some general guidelines about what you can expect:
- Most filler treatments take between 15 and 30 minutes and require one office visit.
- Before getting the injections, you may need ice, an anesthetic applied to the skin, or a nerve block (an injection). This varies with the filler and area to be treated.
- Your physician will inject the filler into the area, often giving you several injections to produce the best results.
- You may feel a stinging or burning sensation as the filler is injected.
What must I do after getting a filler?
Most patients can return to their everyday activities after leaving the office.
To reduce any redness and swelling from the injections, your physician may recommend icing the area for 15 to 20 minutes before you leave.
Before you leave the office, you should be able to apply makeup.
After leaving the office, you should:
- Wait until the next day to exercise or do any other strenuous activity.
- Stay out of the sun and do not use a tanning bed or other type of indoor tanning.
- Avoid touching the treated area for three days, unless you receive instructions to massage the area.
One filler, poly-L-lactic acid, requires you to gently massage the treated area for about 5 minutes several times a day for 1 to 2 weeks. Your dermatologist will tell you if you need to massage the area.
Is there downtime?
This varies with the filler. Most fillers do not cause downtime. Be sure to ask your dermatologist whether you will have downtime.
When will I see results after getting a filler?
This also varies with the filler. Most fillers fill the skin, so they produce immediate — or close to immediate — results. Hyaluronic acid fillers act immediately. Filler such as Sculptra can stimulate your body to produce collagen, but this takes time.
Will I look natural?
To get natural-looking results, the person injecting the filler must have expertise in placing the filler.
Physicians recommend not overdoing fillers. Your results will look more natural with a conservative approach. For example, patients who have very thin lips should not get dramatically fuller lips. Creating fuller lips in these patients could be extremely unflattering because the lips might start to resemble a duck’s bill.
How long will the results from fillers last?
Most fillers offer temporary results and require repeat treatments to maintain the results.
Temporary fillers offer one key advantage. These can be injected as needed to replace lost fullness. This is advantageous because no matter what we do, our skin continues to age.
Hyaluronic acid treatments last between 6-9 months
When is it safe to get another treatment?
If you get a temporary filler, you can usually have another treatment when the signs of aging reappear.
What are the possible side effects?
After receiving filler injections, some patients have minor, temporary side effects where they were injected. You may have:
- Redness
- Swelling
- Tenderness
- Bruising (occasionally)
These side effects tend to clear within 7 to 14 days — if not earlier.
Microneedling
What does microneedling treat?
Microneedling can treat fine lines and wrinkles, acne scars, sun spots, large pores, facial scars, uneven skin tone, and skin that has lost its elasticity.
How many microneedling sessions do I need?
The number of treatments you will need depends on your desired goals and the current state of your skin. For patients looking to stimulate collagen induction and heal surface-level imperfections, we recommend starting with 3 treatments, one every 4-6 weeks. For scar reduction, more treatments may be necessary.
How long do the results from microneedling last?
Patients who undergo microneedling treatment will begin to see immediate results to the tone and texture of their skin within one week of the procedure. Deeper skin issues like scars may take more time to show results. The effects of microneedling are long lasting but not permanent, so many patients stick to a maintenance program that includes quarterly treatments.
Is microneedling painful?
Despite the fact that the procedure includes many needles, microneedling is relatively painless. Our providers apply a topical anesthetic to the treatment areas prior to the procedure to reduce the chances of pain. Patients may experience redness and irritation immediately following the procedure, but this should diminish within a few days.
PRP
What Is PRP?
Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) is concentrated blood plasma enriched with platelets that contain potent growth factors, cytokines, and fibroblasts to help rebuild damaged tissue. PRP has been used for years to speed up joint, tendon and tissue repair, and now this concept has been modernized to treat your face – working on the simple basis of utilizing your own natural plasma platelets to help the body create new collagen for tighter, smoother, and better-toned skin.
How does Platelet Rich Plasma work?
Blood is initially drawn from the patient, then spun in a specialized device to separate the platelets from the other blood components. The concentrated platelets (PRP) are then injected into the desired treatment area, releasing growth factors that stimulate and increase the number of reparative cells and collagen for stunning results.
How long do PRP injections take?
Because the blood has to be collected, spun, and the platelets extracted before they can be injected into the patient, PRP sessions can take anywhere between 60-90 minutes.
How many PRP sessions do I need?
The number of PRP sessions you’ll need depends on your desired results, as well as the area that’s being treated, but most patients require 3 treatments over a 4-6 week period, with maintenance treatments as needed every 4-6 months until fully healed.
Are there any side effects of PRP treatment?
There are no side effects of PRP treatment, although patients who have difficulty getting blood drawn may feel queasy, light-headed, or faint during the blood collection process. Our providers will be on hand to ensure that you are as comfortable as possible, though!
Aftercare
Filler Injections Aftercare
- If you have bruising at the injection site, it may help to apply aloe vera, vitamin K, or arnica creams, according to a 2015 reviewTrusted Source. It’s a good idea to check with your healthcare professional before using these.
- Apply ice to your lips afterward using an ice pack or an ice cube covered in a thin cloth (so it doesn’t stick to the lip and cause pain). This will help ease swelling, itching, bruising, and any other pain.
- Avoid strenuous exercise for 24 to 48 hours after you get lip or any other dermal fillers. Elevated blood pressure and heart rate from exercise may make swelling or bruising worse. It’s fine to engage in light activity, like walking.
- Stay hydrated. Drinking plenty of water will help your body heal.
- Eat plenty of hydrating fruits and vegetables and try to avoid excess sodium, which may worsen swelling.
- Avoid high temperatures, like steam rooms, saunas, or heated exercise classes for 48 hours after treatment. High heat can make swelling more pronounced.
- Ask your doctor which pain medications are OK to take in the days after your treatment. Normally Tylenol will be fine, but not blood-thinning medications like ibuprofen or aspirin.
- If you’re getting lip fillers for a specific event, make sure to leave plenty of time in between the procedure and the event to allow your lips to properly recover.
- Try to sleep with your head elevated on pillows to reduce swelling. Do not sleep on your face.
- Avoid makeup on your lips for up to 24 hours after the procedure.
Neuromodulator post treatment care
You will begin to feel and see some changes in about 3 days. The full effect will be apparent after 2 weeks.
After treatment, you may experience swelling, redness, itching, discolouration and tenderness at the site of treatment. This will typically last for less than a couple of hours. Additionally, though rare, red or swollen small bumps may occur for 2-3 days in some patients.
If you need to apply makeup within 4 hours of your treatment, only use a gentle tough to avoid rubbing the treated areas.
Movement instructions:
- For 1 hour: Exercise your treated areas (i.e. practice frowning, raising your eyebrows).
- For 3 hours: Remain upright, do not rub the treated area. You may apply makeup gently.
- Rest of day: Refrain from strenuous physical activity, hot tub, sauna, facial or alcohol.
Please book your follow up assessment at the 2 -3 week mark, especially if this is your first treatment. This will ensure that we can see how your facial muscles reacted to your treatment. IF you require more product to fine tune or adjust your treatment results, it will be applied during this appointment.
Microneedling Aftercare
A sunburn-like effect is normal for 1-3 days. Severity of redness will depend on how aggressive the treatment was performed. The skin may feel tight, dry, swollen, and sensitive to the touch. The skin may appear darker and this should flake off within 1 week. Avoid picking or exfoliating the area and allow old skin to flake off naturally.
After Care Regimen:
- Wash the treated area with lukewarm water only, twice a day for the first 2 days, starting in the morning after the procedure is done.
- On days 3-5 wash with a gentle cleanser, like cetaphil wash
- On days 6+, resume normal routine
- Do not go swimming for at least 24 hours post-treatment
- No exercise that causes sweating, Jacuzzi, sauna, or steam baths until the skin is healed
- DO not use makeup for 24 hours post- treatment
Do not use exfoliating medications, chemicals, or retinol products on the treated areas for at least 1 week, and until the skin appears completely healed.
Sun exposure must be minimized after your treatment. If you know you will get incidental sun exposure, we recommend using a protective hat or a scarf.
Do not use sunscreen for the first 24 hours after the procedure.
After 24 hours, use a bread spectrum physical sunscreen every morning, with reapplication throughout the day as needed.