Background
Dermal fillers are made of various kinds of natural and man-made or synthetic materials that have been developed over the years for injection into the skin.
This is not a new treatment. As early as the 1890s, doctors could take fat from patients’ arms and inject it into their faces. In fact, fat is still a popular substance used by some practitioners today who can move fatty tissue from an area of the body where it is not required and inject it somewhere else. If you would like to find out more about this treatment, please go to our fat transfer section.
In the mid 1900s, doctors were using paraffin and then silicone as a filler in the skin, with some reported problems regarding safety that prevented them being used widely.
In the U.S.A. in the 1980s, scientists discovered a type of collagen (a filler material) which occurs naturally in cows’ skin that proved to be safe in humans. At this point, the use of fat as a filler material was overtaken by this new collagen.
According to Statistics from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, (ASAPS) collagen injections were the 13th commonest aesthetic procedure in the U.S. with more than 58,000 treatments in 2008 alone, (49.6% of these procedures used bovine-derived collagen products and 50.4% used human-derived collagen products). As previously seen when comparing 2006 to 2005 and 2007 to 2006 figures, the 2008 figures also show a decrease in the use of these products by 8.3% compared to 2007 figures. This is mainly due to the increased use of hyaluronic acid based dermal fillers and others (i.e. calcium hydroxlapatite, poly-l-lactic acid and polymethyl methacrylate dermal fillers). The hyaluronic acid based dermal fillers (Hylaform®, Restylane® & Juvederm®) are now beating collagen to 3rd place in the commonest aesthetic procedure in the U.S. with over 1.26 million treatments in 2008, (a decrease of 12.8% on 2007 figures). With calcium hydroxlapatite (Radiesse™) accounting for just under 123,000 dermal filler procedures, (a rise of 3% in its use since 2007), poly-l-lactic acid (Sculptra™) nearly 32,000, (a decrease of 8.7% on 2007), and polymethyl methacrylate (Artecoll®) showing as a new entry in 2007 since US FDA approval with just under 11,000 procedures in 2008, a fall of 10.6% on 2007.
Although similar statistics are not yet available in the U.K., there has been tremendous growth in the use of collagen and other dermal fillers in this country. More people than ever are having this treatment because it works, it is not as expensive as a face lift and it doesn’t involve any surgery.
As the use of these products has grown, so has the choice of different filler substances. Since the late 1990s, some manufacturers have been claiming that their products last longer than older fillers, and even that their effects can be permanent.
If you are considering a dermal filler procedure, the following information will give you a basic understanding of what’s involved. It can’t answer all your questions, since a lot depends on the individual patient and the practitioner. Please ask a practitioner about anything you don’t understand.
