Dermal fillers can make subtle differences or differences of great magnitude. The selection, combining, and placement of fillers is the key to a successful and harmonious result. Dr. Fitzgerald is pleased to offer a wide range of filler formulations from Restylane.
Restylane’s popularity in Los Angeles is a result of its proven action as a dermal filler that restores volume and fullness to the skin to correct facial wrinkles and folds. Made of a substance called hyaluronic acid (a natural and very important part of skin structure), Restylane’s job is to replace the natural hyaluronic acid that diminishes with age – or was insufficient to begin with, as is the case with thin lips.
You can find out if Restylane is the right option for you and receive individualized treatment recommendations by speaking with Dr. Rebecca Fitzgerald in person. Please call today to schedule a consultation.
Dr. Fitzgerald understands that no two faces are alike and no two people experience identical aging patterns. To ensure we can address your unique needs and goals, we offer a wide range of Restylane formulations in Los Angeles, including:
Each of these formulations has subtle differences, allowing it to achieve different goals. Dr. Fitzgerald will carefully evaluate your facial features and signs of aging to recommend the right option to achieve the best possible outcome.
Young skin is smooth and elastic and contains a large amount of hyaluronic acid that helps the skin look healthy – almost like jello that’s been in the refrigerator. As we grow older, the ability of our skin to produce this “youth” component decreases. What used to be firm jello is now almost melting jello.
Since hyaluronic acid helps to bind water, the ability of the skin to retain water also declines with age. As a result, your skin becomes drier, thinner, and less able to restore itself. The loss of volume also means that your skin becomes looser. This leads to wrinkling and an older appearance. Restylane can help restore the skin.
The lower layer of your skin, the dermis, contains two protein fibers – collagen and elastin. These fibers support many of the active structures found in the dermal layer of your skin – things like hair follicles, oil glands, sweat glands, and blood vessels. You can think of the fibers like the inner walls of a house. When the walls weaken, things start to sag.
When you’re young, your body keeps everything hydrated by floating these proteins and skin structures in an “ocean” of hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid holds 1,000 times its weight in water, so it’s an incredible support molecule that helps keep your skin looking young.
Once there is decreased hydration, which happens to all of us as we get older, all these little components weaken, and the skin structures lose flexibility. With time and exposure (to things like sun, smoking, and pollution), we lose all three – the collagen, elastin, and that vital hyaluronic acid “ocean.” What we get as a replacement is wrinkles and lines and skin that has lost much of its bounce-back and firmness.
Recent advances in technology have made it possible to recreate this hyaluronic acid in a lab and stabilize it to make it last longer. It is known as NASHA gel – Non Animal-derived Stabilized Hyaluronic Acid – and it enables us to instantly “add back” what we’ve lost in a simple, quick office procedure.
Hyaluronic acid is such an important part of hydration that it exists in the same form in almost all species on earth, and it has been around since the dinosaurs. Now, with these recent remarkable scientific advances, such a Restylane, you can essentially stop in and “get a refill” whenever you need it.
Restylane cosmetic dermal filler is made of hyaluronic acid, a natural substance that already exists in your body. The hyaluronic acid also creates volume in your face, giving it a healthy, youthful appearance.
When Restylane is injected directly into areas where the body’s support structures have been weakened, depressions can be raised to the level of surrounding skin. This smooths and minimizes facial lines and most types of scars. In addition, skin texture is improved and has a softer and more even tone.
Restylane is injected directly into your skin in tiny amounts by an ultra-fine needle or with a tiny flexible cannula, resulting in minimal discomfort. The integration of lidocaine into the formula helps ensure a more comfortable experience. The procedure is simple and quick, and results are practically instantaneous.
A “lip block” may be used before the Restylane treatment to optimize your comfort during the short procedure if your treatment is in areas such as the lips or around the mouth. Numbing cream is used for other facial areas.
A Restylane treatment in our Los Angeles office will actually fill the depressions in your skin and smooth out the skin’s surface, resulting in the appearance of a more youthful complexion.
Restylane effects last between six and nine months. With a timed program of injections, you can see effects for up to 18 months.
The areas most commonly treated are:
Restylane is an excellent wrinkle filler and lip volumizer, but like any filler, it has limitations. If you are experiencing the hollowness in your face that comes with fat loss (again, a natural result of aging for many women and men), you may want to explore a re-volumizer like Sculptra.
Sculptra is a collagen-promoting micro-particle implant that is injected deep in your skin. Results are not immediate as it takes a number of months to become fully evident, but the replaced fullness is very long-lasting.
In many instances, Dr. Fitzgerald will also recommend combining Restylane with BOTOX® Cosmetic for enhanced results. By preventing extreme muscle movement, BOTOX® Cosmetic helps the Restylane last longer. It’s a synergistic effect that seems to prolong the positive effects of both treatments.
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Contact us at our Larchmont Los Angeles office to learn more about this filler option.
The most recent Restylane facial fillers, Refyne and Defyne, bring even greater improvement to how well the material behaves once injected. The “big deal” with both Refyne and Defyne are their unique ability to move with the utmost of ease with your every expression. Aptly named “XpresHAn”, this new cross-linking technology increases the elasticity and support, giving you the best of both worlds in being able to use as much filler as needed in more mobile areas.
Not all fillers can be used everywhere due to the varying densities and flexibilities. This is one reason you see an expanding array of fillers, some that are specific to superficial lines or lips and others that are meant to provide deep volumetric improvement and support.
Facial movement is a necessary component in the consideration of how much filler can be used and the location it can be used. With Refyne and Defyne, both of these considerations are less restrictive. The fillers offer soft support for laugh lines, folds and marionette lines, and they will likely be used “off label” in other areas that require more volume and flexibility.
A treatment targeting the tear trough area is Restylane® EYELIGHT™, an injectable hyaluronic acid-based filler. Restylane® EYELIGHT™ treats the root cause of the problem – the lack of volume – by filling up the groove.
Once the groove is reduced and the area smoothed out, light will reflect from the tear trough area. Instead of tired-looking eyes, you will have bright eyes, and you will look well-rested.
Restylane Silk™ is the first FDA-approved product specifically for wrinkles around the mouth and precision lip reflation. The Restylane Silk tag line is “The lips you want; the lines you don’t.” It’s an appropriate one, because that’s exactly what it accomplishes. In Summer of 2020, Restylane Kysse was approved for lip augmentation and perioral lines with a longer lasting formula.
Injectables for lips need to flow easily and integrate smoothly into the skin. Restylane Silk & Kysse are formulated with smaller, smoother hyaluronic gel particles than previous products.
Restylane Kysse uses a proprietary technology to provide high levels of improvement* with 78% of trial patients reporting they were still satisfied with their results after 1 year. A lower amount of Restylane Kysse (1.82 mL) was needed to show an improvement in lip fullness** compared to the comparator (2.24 mL) in the Phase 3 trial supporting approval.
From a doctors’ point of view, Restylane lip fillers are elegantly deliverable gels that gently shape and define lips easily and precisely. Consistency and flow make it possible to restore lip fullness and minimize vertical lines.
From a patient’s perspective, Restylane Silk and Kysse look and feel so natural, it’s hard to sense where natural tissue ends and the filler begins. The integration with your own delicate skin tissue is unparalleled.
Restylane Silk & Kysse are effective at treating:
“Restylane gel filler has become a ‘go to’ for most of my patients when it comes to making corrections around the lips. It’s the perfect option for sensitive skin and fragile lips…which is a special advantage for patients who have thin tissue to begin with.
No show-through, no lumpy feel, and any swelling resolves very quickly. It’s an injector’s dream gel. The terms Silk and Kysse are very appropriately applied here.” Dr. Rebecca Fitzgerald, Restylane Training Physician
Hyaluronic gels in general provide a very smooth result. They move easily with muscle action because they aren’t stiff or pasty. Because a lot of their volume is from water drawn into the skin, there is retained elastic quality. Restylane Silk and Kysse formulations integrats immediately.
Facial recontouring and revolumizing have become much better understood in the last decade. While facelifts used to be the only option for looking younger, we’ve now established a step-by-step process that can more often than not set aside the idea of surgery for many years, or even exclude it entirely.
Not all volume needs arise from age-related volume loss. Genetics can play a big part in your unique facial balance (or lack thereof); so can the natural losses associated with breastfeeding or vigorous exercise. Using an augmentative dermal filler or collagen stimulator can provide the balance you want to enjoy at any age.
Interested to see the many ways volume loss affects the face? View Professional Training Videos
With an artist’s eye and an in-depth knowledge of underlying anatomy, Dr. Rebecca Fitzgerald can achieve a remarkable restoration effect with dermal fillers and collagen stimulators. She will frequently combine various fillers to achieve the most natural appearance along with the most natural facial movement. Hyaluronic gels are good choices for fillers since they can be dissolved, carry the lowest risk for side effects and feel as natural as your own skin.
It’s important to understand that while the use of fillers may be a crucial component to unlocking the “look of youth,” they are only part of the solution to correcting appearance flaws that include volume loss or imbalance. Lasers and laser-like technology can help resurface, tighten and lift with little to no social downtime in most instances. In addition, active skin care product use invigorates skin to behave more youthfully and look fresh, clear and vibrant.
Please contact Dr. Rebecca Fitzgerald using the form on this page or call 323-464-8046 today to schedule a consultation. We serve patients in Beverly Hills, Larchmont and throughout the Los Angeles area.
