1.) Fillers Have Multiple Applications
Your face ages in different ways in different areas. You might experience volume loss around your cheeks, but you also might see it around your chin or your eyes. Wrinkles can appear around your eyes, but they can also appear around your mouth and forehead. Not to mention your skin can lose elasticity all over your face.
Fillers can be applied in different areas of your face to treat the same problem. For example, if your cheeks and your chin are losing volume, they can both be treated with Radiesse, a dermal filler that contains tiny microspheres of calcium hydroxylapatite to act as a liquid implant and give the appearance of more volume around your face. Another example is Juvederm, which is a synthetic form of hyaluronic acid, an important component is helping your skin stay hydrated and contoured. Juvederm can be applied in multiple areas around your face to give your skin a boost so it looks healthier and smoother.
There are a number of surgical options that can also help you improve your appearance, but there are different procedures for each area of the face. Instead of using one type of filler on your eyes and mouth, you might need two or three different surgeries.
2.) Fillers are Less Risky Than Surgery
Every plastic surgery procedure carries some form of risk to it; there isn’t any way around that. There are varying degrees of risk, though, and fillers are considerably less risky than surgery. Surgery requires anesthesia, incisions, and physical changes to the inside and outside of your face. Your face experiences more trauma and requires more healing. All of these factors increase the risks associated with the procedure.
By contrast, fillers usually don’t require an anesthetic. If they do, it’s typically a topical one. There are no incisions, only injections. Your face will still be changed, but without any physical manipulation of your soft tissue. Patients who go in for filler injections are leaving the doctor’s office within a couple hours, compared to patients who go in for surgery in the morning and don’t leave until the afternoon.
Let’s be clear: more risks does not mean that surgery is unsafe and fillers are always safe. Surgical procedures are inherently more risky than nonsurgical procedures, but they can still provide you with great benefits. Fillers carry some risk to them that can result in significant complications. That’s why no matter which type of procedure you get, it’s always important to choose a quality surgeon.
3.) Fillers are Easier to Adjust and Customize
Fillers can be customized to each patient’s unique needs. One patient might have more trouble with wrinkles than volume loss, while another patient might have skin that is losing its structural integrity. Some patients can have more than one problem with their skin while others only have one specific problem. Different fillers can be used in different combinations to treat varying skin issues on the same patient.
Fillers can also be adjusted as needed. If the doctor feels like you need a little bit more in one area, more material can be injected. Some filler materials can also be removed if needed to lessen the effect. Adjustments are more difficult with surgical procedures. If you have cheek implants put in, adjusting them requires another surgical procedure.
Fillers can also be reapplied as many times as you like. Over time, your body will absorb the material used in the filler injections and you’ll need to get another round to keep the same results.
4.) Fillers are Less Expensive Than Surgery
Filler injections can run anywhere from $500-$900, depending on the type and number of injections. As an example, lip injections cost around $600 while Restylane costs about $500. Compare that to face lift surgery, which on average costs about $6500, or lip augmentation implants that run about $2200.
5.) Fillers Give You a Preview of Surgery
A really fantastic benefit of fillers is that they can give you an idea of what you might look like with a surgical procedure. For example, wrinkles around your eyes and mouth can be improved with fillers, but they can also be improved with a face lift or an eye lift. Surgery gives you longer lasting results with a greater impact, but it’s also more expensive and can be rather intimidating to someone who’s never had cosmetic surgery before. Fillers can give you a preview of a surgical procedure without having to pay thousands of dollars or go under anesthesia. If you like how you look with the fillers and you want to make the effect more permanent, then surgery can be a more viable option.
Schedule Your Consultation Appointment
To learn more about fillers and what they can do to improve your appearance, contact Dr. Andres Bustillo at (305) 663-3380. Dr. Bustillo is a board-certified facial plastic surgeon in Miami, FL, who offers a variety of dermal fillers to his patients as well as many other surgical and nonsurgical procedures. Schedule a patient consultation to discover how Dr. Bustillo can help you put your best face forward and love the way you look!