Dermal Fillers are an increasingly popular, anti-aging cosmetic option, allowing one to return a sort of ‘youthful plumpness’ to one’s face. However, one must always remember to make use of a professional, medical practitioner when seeking to make use of dermal fillers.
What are Dermal Fillers?
To understand the importance of why you need a professional, it’s best to begin with understanding just what Dermal Fillings actually are.
Dermal fillers, or ‘Wrinkle/Soft tissue’ fillers, are medical implants intended to give faces a softer appearance. As you grow older, your skin loses its elasticity, while you also lose fat. Overtime, your face loses a plumpness which results in the formation of wrinkles and lines. The purpose of Dermal fillers is to counteract this by providing the skin with a new ‘plumpness’.
Dermal fillers shouldn’t be mistaken for another form of Botox (another common cosmetic treatment). Whereas Dermal fillers replace the lost plumpness, Botox paralyses the muscles beneath the skin to try and halt the excess movements that create the lines.
Dermal fillers are made from a wide range of substances and materials, many found in other cosmetic products, others drawn from the human body. For example, Hyaluronic acid is common in many skincare products, and is drawn from some of the body’s fluids and tissues. Another is Polyalkylimide, a transparent gel fully compatible with the human body.
Dermal filler as such is superb in dealing with signs of aging in the body, and the simplicity of the treatment has made it incredibly popular. When performed by a qualified professional, Dermal filler treatment is not only simple but safe, and had produce practically instantons results in softening the skin and removing wrinkles.
Dermal fillers have also become popular because of their use in handling issues such as scars derived from conditions and illnesses such as chicken pox or acne.
Why a Professional Dermal Filler treatment is important: Dangers of unqualified services and unapproved products
Dermal fillers are an incredibly popular treatment and demand continues to grow, especially because of how simple and quick they are. However, like all medical or cosmetic procedures, Dermal filler treatment must only ever be provided by a professional. Not only must it be provided by a professional, but it must be provided in a professional environment. It is also important the treatment has been approved and likewise, the product must also be approved.
What are the potential issues from non-professional service?
While safe in the hands of a professional, Dermal Fillers when used by someone is unqualified or unskilled can have severe side effects. These can include bumps that need to be treated with injections, or even removed via surgery. Issues that can result from ‘DIY’ self-injections include,
- Bumps
- Severe bruising
- Infections
- Blindness
Even in the cases of ‘successful’ DIY injections, there can be long term effects, including migraines and abscess.
‘Black Market’ or online bought Dermal fillers are often offered at incredibly cheap prices and are often provided by people posing to be doctors or medical organisations.
These are not approved by any medical health organisation or body, and besides the potential danger from a poorly performed injection, they often contain completely unsafe materials. For example, some of these online bought Dermal fillers include materials like hair gel or silicon. Any ‘cheapness’ factor will be countered by the severe health issues they have the tendency to bring with them.
Injectable silicone is not one of these approved materials and should never be used. Silicone injections can result in serious health problems and disfigurement. Silicon injections are particularly dangerous due to their potential to travel to other parts of the body, such as the lungs or heart. The resulting blockage can result in severe health complications, including strokes.
Professional medical literature widely agrees that use of these products is drastically unsafe.
One thing to always remember is that there are specific approved uses of Dermal Fillers. A service offering to provide dermal fillers for unapproved services is to be avoided.
The Approved uses of Dermal Fillers are specific. These include;
- Temporary fillers for facial wrinkles and folds, like those around the sides of the mouth, lips and chin
- Fillers being used to augment the lips, chin, cheeks and back of the hands
- Permanent fillers being used to fill recess scars (i.e., from acne or chickenpox)
- Use of fillers to restore and correct facial fat loss (from conditions such as HIV)
The Unapproved uses of Dermal Fillers include;
- Breast implants and augmentation
- Increasing the size of buttocks
- Increasing the size of feet
- Implantation into bones or muscle
- Implantation into areas between the eyebrows (glabella), nose, forehead or neck