There are many different types of fillers that can mimic bone, fat, increase collagen production, etc. They are most often made from hyaluronic acid. But what are fillers, really, and why do we use them?
Anytime we’re considering a technique for our GoodSkin™ clients, we consider what deficits we need to address within their anatomy. Many clients come in with a concern, but we always start with diagnosis. We look at the five elements of aging: bone, muscle, skin, fat, and connective tissue. What we’re looking to restore with fillers are bone and fat.
So if we are trying to reproduce bone, we’re going to use a more structural filler. If we’re reproducing fat, we want a softer filler. Filler may commonly be used for sleep wrinkles on the cheeks, laugh lines, lip lines, or even nose correction, while BOTOX is used more often for forehead lines, brow furrows, and crow’s feet.
Because, in essence, fillers act as a “restorer.” BOTOX, on the other hand, targets one of the underlying causes of facial lines: the repeated muscle contractions from frowning, squinting, smiling and raising the eyebrows over the years. Instead of adding a product to recreate what’s missing, Botox takes away the source of those frown lines, crow’s feet and forehead lines.
That said, at GoodSkin Clinics, we think of BOTOX very differently than something just for treating wrinkles. With men in particular, one can address the lines on their forehead with BOTOX, which can look great in the short-term; but over time can cause the brow to sag, making one look tired. And women who get BOTOX between their eyes can end up in the long term with overly peaked eyebrows.
During the diagnosis phase, using our state-of-the-art technology, we carefully determine the causes of the visual effects of aging of each client. In fact, we determine the causes for each part of each client’s face. Where muscle activity is the cause, our practitioners may inject a client’s facial muscles with BOTOX, where it works beneath the surface to temporarily reduce muscle activity that may be contributing to someone’s genetics of aging. But importantly, we consider how the client will look in the long-term, say ten years down the line.
In fact, we prefer a longer-term approach in general. We use BOTOX to re-train muscles. (And in fact treat patients with Bell’s Palsy, muscle spasms and tension headaches.) Of course, the Client Advocates at our clinics are always happy to answer any questions you have about filler and BOTOX, since our passion is helping our clients look and feel like the best version of themselves.
