Injectable wrinkle treatments are the medical aesthetics success story of the 21st century. Accounting for about half of all minimally invasive cosmetic procedures and outnumbering cosmetic surgeries almost four to one, botulinum toxin and dermal filler injections improve the appearance of many line and wrinkle conditions with a simple office visit.
At Bayview General Medicine, we offer many injectable products, including most leading brands. Each product has unique characteristics and applications, creating a palette for our medical aesthetics professionals to customize your facial rejuvenation approach.
There’s a reason these techniques are so popular. Quite simply, they work. Results are predictable and repeatable, particularly in the hands of Dr. Richard Blanchar and our team. There are two primary forms of injectable wrinkle treatment. Here’s a look at each of them in depth.
There’s little chance you can avoid the name Botox® if you’ve followed popular media any time in the last 20 years. Using purified and synthetic versions of a powerful, natural neurotoxin, Botox and other products based on the botulinum type A strain treat active wrinkles, a form of facial line caused when your skin reveals the contours of contracting expression muscles.
Over time, these muscles — on the forehead, between and beside the eyes — freeze in a semi-permanent contracted state. Imagine tensing your face in concentration, but the muscles never release. Injections of Botox or Dysport® force these muscles to relax and smooth out. The overlying skin smooths out, too, and the shadows caused by deep crevasses disappear. Your face relaxes and looks younger. You’re still you but with fewer lines.
While Botox and Dysport do a fantastic job on active wrinkles, this only accounts for a few of the lines on your face. Most are passive, starting with a loss of tissue below the surface in the middle dermis layer.
Collagen production begins to slow in your late 20s or early 30s, affecting the protein matrix that supports your epidermis. As the matrix breaks down, voids start to form. Your skin becomes less elastic and starts to cave into these voids, initially causing fine lines, some growing deeper with time.
There’s no active component to this type of wrinkling as there is with expression muscles, so these lines need a different approach, and this is where dermal fillers enter the picture.
Using gels based on synthetic versions of natural proteins, dermal fillers do exactly what you’d expect. Carefully and strategically injected under your skin, these gels fill the voids, supporting the surface layer of skin and smoothing these passive lines.
Unlike spas that may offer one or two brands of dermal filler, we carry a full range, including the most popular hyaluronic acid fillers and gels formulated with calcium hydroxyapatite and poly L-lactic acid. Each formulation has its ideal application, whether filling wrinkles, unfolding folds, or adding volume. Our dermal filler collection includes:
Botulinum toxin injectables and dermal fillers are complementary treatments. If your aesthetic plan includes both types of wrinkles, you can combine these treatments in a single session.
Find out more by contacting us at Bayview General Medicine by phone or online. We’ll arrange a personal consultation to recommend a customized plan for you. Book your visit today.
