“I want to talk a little bit about mid-face volume enhancement. It’s become a very popular item with the new advanced of the Voluma product that’s made by Allergen, it is called Juvederm Voluma. It’s a new HA or hyaluronic acid gel filler which shows durations of effect in studies that were performed here in the United States of two years and longer.
In fact in 67% of the patients that were studied with mid-face volume treatments, they had two years of duration and we’re still very effective at the end of two years. So the long term effect of this may last well in 2, 3, 4, 5 year period. We don’t even know the answer to that yet which is made it a very exciting product as compared to some of the other ones. The more traditional products like Radiesse or Sculptra, which we know last about a year in duration.
So this has changed the way we’re thinking about mid-face volume and it certainly has given a good run to the traditional methods of surgical mid-face volume enhancement using micro fat injections, which are very commonly employed here at the Mass Clinic, as are now Voluma which can be done easily in the clinic without a surgical procedure.
The question about mid-face volume is “Does it last a long time?”
That’s the most commonly asked if we use one of these injectable fillers and “What’s the long term effect of this in terms of our aging will this change with this as we age?”
I would say that, in general, most of us are losing or are losing fat as we age, and/or the distribution of fat in the face is misplaced. There is a typical sinking of the mid-facial volume, the cheek area sinks, it creates a deeper nasolabial fold, a relative hallow under the eyes which we call it negative mid-facial vector and by restoring the volume under the eye and up through the cheek mound that’s out here by the boney prominence, we can really rejuvenate or give a much more youthful, muchess tired look to someone.
The injection techniques that are employed now for me really are coming down to Voluma for doing it in the office, and then micro-fat injections that I commonly employ when doing facelift or eyelid rejuvenation types of surgery.
These products are both very safe, obviously fats is from your own tissue and this makes it effective. Voluma now has a very good track record both in Europe and here in the United States.
If you’re interested in finding out more about Voluma or about micro-fat transfer, I would encourage you to visit our website at MaasClinic.com. You can call our office at 415-567-7000 and I’m certainly happy to have you visit our video blog at DrMaas.com. As always it’s my pleasure to answer your questions. This is Corey S. Maas MDTM on Looking Your Best.”
