Temporary dermal filler R

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a temporary filler?

This temporary filler is Non-Animal Stabilised normal body substance. When it is injected into the skin it creates volume for the treatment of lips, lines, wrinkles and facial folds. Its results are immediate.

This temporary filler was introduced in 1996 and has since been used in hundreds of thousands of people world-wide.

This temporary filler is a colourless transparent gel consisting of a stabilized normal body product.

This temporary filler is sterile, visco-elastic and free-from products of animal origin, so pre-testing for hypersensitivity is not required.

This temporary filler is pre-packed in glass syringes each containing 1ml of this stabilized gel.

How long does it last?

Temporary fillers last from six months to one year, depending on the area being treated and the depth of the lines, the condition of the skin and the lifestyle of the individual and the amount of muscle action around the filled area.

Most people return at 5 to 7 months for a top-up in the lips and lines around the mouth where there is a lot of movement, or in 6 to 12 months for areas such as the frown lines where there is less muscle movement.

It is best to combine treatment with ‘wrinkle prevention’ injections in the upper facial areas to prevent the muscle movement so that the temporary filler lasts longer.

It can sometimes be combined with a very tiny amount of ‘wrinkle prevention’ injections, above and below the lips, to reduce the creasing of the lip "pursing" or "puckering" muscles. This then prevents the vertical lines (or smoker's lines) developing, and makes the dermal fillers last longer in the lips and around the mouth.

How long the effect of the temporary filler lasts is very individual. It depends on many factors, such as the structure of the skin, lifestyle and age as well as on the degree of perfection demanded by each client.

How long do temporary filler treatments take?

The appointment takes approximately 30 to 40 minutes and the results are immediate.

Most of this time is in explanation and preparation, and ensuring good local anaesthesia to make the procedure as comfortable as possible. The actual injections only take a few minutes.

Does it hurt?

Temporary filler treatments involve injection into the skin, you therefore may experience some discomfort, however, local anaesthetic creams and ice application are used to minimize pain for the more superficial wrinkles.

The areas for deeper injections and treatment around the mouth and lips are completely painless by providing a good local anaesthetic block, like at the dentist.

What are the possible side effects?

Temporary fillers are generally well tolerated with few side effects other than those associated with the total volume of product injected into a confined plane in the skin.

The side effects of temporary filler treatments may include swelling, pain, redness, itching, discolouration, tenderness and occasional bruising. Swelling is the most likely effect because temporary filler attracts the body's own water to the area. Other side effects may include minor lumps, which usually resolve and smooth out quickly during the week.

Typically, resolution is spontaneous within a few days after injection into the skin, and within a week after injection into the lips.

You cannot be allergic to temporary fillers. Infection should not occur, with good injection technique.

Is it safe?

Temporary fillers are safe because it contains no animal proteins, allergens or chemicals.

Since temporary fillers contains only minimally modified product that is a natural constituent of human tissues, it is bio-compatible and very safe.

Local tolerance to the gel is excellent, with the material becoming integrated into local tissues. Degraded material is metabolized slowly into the skin and excreted by the same pathways as the natural substance, passing through the liver quickly and is broken down into carbon dioxide and water.

There are no contraindications to the use of temporary fillers and the precautions are mainly those that should be observed for any intradermal injection.

Reactions thought to be of hypersensitivity nature have been reported in about one in every 2,000 treatments. These have consisted of swelling and induration at the implant site, sometimes with oedema in the surrounding tissues. Redness, tenderness and, rarely, acne-form papules may also occur. The reactions have started either shortly after injection or after a delay of 2 to 4 weeks and have generally described as mild to moderate, and self-limiting with an average duration of two weeks. In pronounced cases a short course of oral corticosteroids may prove effective. In addition, rare cases (less than 1 in 15,000 treatments) of granuloma formation, superficial necrosis and urticaria have been reported.

What will I look like if I decide against further treatment? Will I be more wrinkled?

No! You will be less wrinkled! You will have delayed wrinkles and age lines!

The skin will return to its original state if you decide against further treatments but the filling and plumping effect on the skin will have delayed further development of wrinkles, had the temporary fillers treatment not intervened.

So you will have delayed the development of age lines, by not further squeezing your skin collagen tissue out of the base of your creases and wrinkles.

Can I go straight back to work after treatment?

Yes, but for a first treatment it is probably better to schedule your appointment for the end of the day.

Filling around the naso-labial area and under the angles of the mouth, usually produces little downtime, depending on the amount of temporary fillers used. Filling of scars and depressions settles within a few hours.

If you are having lip enhancements your lips may be swollen for 1-3 days. Clients with softer, younger lips, in their twenties or thirties, will recover quickly, often the next day.

Clients in their forties and fifties wanting lip enhancement, should preferably fill them in small stages, progressively over several sessions. This gradually stretches the age-scar lines in the lips and makes the enhancement more comfortable.

What happens to the gel over time?

Although the gel particle size differs amongst the available products, the overall NASHA gel (Non-Animal Stabilized Hyaluronic Acid - Hyaluronic that does not come from animals) concentration is identical: 20 mg/ml stabilized HA (Hyaluronic Acid: A substance found in the connective tissue of the body that cushions and lubricates. Hyaluronic acid also creates volume in the face, giving it a healthy, youthful appearance). This concentration has been carefully selected to provide optimal maintenance of volume for tissue augmentation and lifting.

An important advantage of this non-animal stabilized product used in all our injectable products is its prolonged residence time in the tissues. However, like other biodegradable implants, it is slowly broken down after injection. With conventional biodegradable implants, this has the disadvantage that the implant progressively shrinks and the aesthetic benefit therefore quickly diminishes. Uniquely, with Hyaluronic products, the slow bio-degradation of the stabilized hyaluronic does not lead to gradual shrinkage.

As the NASHA is degraded, each molecule progressively binds more water, more free water binding sites per molecule. This process is called isovolemic degradation. Thus, with temporary fillers, volume is maintained until the stabilized gel is almost completely degraded. When the gel is completely degraded, the remaining hyaluronic acid fragments are metabolized together with the natural tissue Hyaluronic acid, and no trace of the original filler remains.

The products are isovolemically degraded. This means that they can hold more water the less concentrated they are. This ensures efficacy, safety and long-lasting results.

Non-animal, no animal testing!

Because this substance is identical in all living organisms, it offers very high bio-compatibility.

However, no animals are used as a source for our hyaluronic gel. Rather, it is bio-synthetically produced by bacterial fermentation. Thus, there is no risk of transmitting diseases between species, or eliciting allergic reactions in patients who are sensitive to common foods, such as beef, chickens and eggs. This yields an additional and very significant benefit: no skin testing is needed with Hyaluronic treatments.

Treating wrinkles, lip enhancement and facial contours, smoothing wrinkles and folds.

Optimal smoothing of age-related perioral lines and oral commissures (Lines going down from either side of the mouth. Also known as "Marionette Lines") can be accomplished using combinations of all three levels of products. For example, a deep fold can be treated by first injecting the thicker and stronger temporary filler and then by adding the thinner gel on top.

Shaping facial contours
When creating volume in the contours of the face or correcting hollow cheeks, the thicker hyaluronic gel is the right choice. It lifts skin from the cheeks and chin by adding volume in the deep layer of the dermis and/or surface layer of the subcutis. The soft, viscoelastic biodegradable gel adapts to the surrounding tissue.

Lip sculpting
Many patients want fuller lips, a more pouting look or enhancement of the vermilion border (the area where the red or pink lip border meets the skin). Lip augmentation can be divided into two steps:
Contouring and Pouting & Fullness.
To achieve pouting and/or fullness, both the medium and thicker gel can be used.
To augment the vermilion border and/or to define the philtrum ridges (the vertical groove in the upper lip or ‘smokers lines’), the medium gel is recommended.

After care: Precautions to be aware of

  1. Clients should not expose the treated area to intense heat (e.g. solarium and sunbathing) or extreme cold for the first few days after the treatment. This is to avoid the risk of inflammation since the area has been disturbed by the injection procedure. However, once the products are integrated in the body they will adjust to a normal body temperature.
  2. These temporary gel fillers should not be used where a permanent implant has been placed. For the first 24-48 hours
  3. Keep the treated area free of cosmetics and avoid using moisturizers that contain AHA (Alpha Hydroxy Acids/Glycolics) BHA, (Beta Hydroxy Acids), or Retinoid gels or creams. A light water-based make up may be applied when necessary.
  4. Apply cool compresses to the treated areas to relieve swelling.
  5. Drink water regularly throughout the day.

Until redness has subsided, avoid the following:

  1. Drinking alcohol as it opens up blood vessels and may increase bruising or swelling.
  2. Strenuous exercise and extremes of hot and cold.
  3. Blood thinning medicines such as Aspirin.
  4. Facials, facial waxing, Glycolic or AHA peels, Liquid Nitrogen (dry ice) or Laser treatments for 10 to 14 days after temporary fillers injections.

If any lumps should occur in the treated area once swelling has subsided it is recommended that you gently massage that area with clean fingers.