Do any fillers provide permanent results? Which provide the longest lasting results and what can they be used for?
Answer:
The majority of the fillers that you hear about have temporary results that last for 6 months to 1 year. Temporary fillers include Juvederm, Restylane, Perlane and Radiesse. Since theses fillers are made of substances that occur naturally in our body, our body eventually breaks them down with loss of their volume correction over time. The advantage of this is that these filler products have a higher safety profile and give you the opportunity to try something new and see if you like it.
There are a few permanent filler options available. These include synthetic fillers, such as Artefill or autologous fat transfer. Artefill is permanent filler made of a synthetic material that the body cannot break down that is suspended in collagen matrix. This filler is FDA approved for nasolabial folds (smile lines). Autologous fat transfer or fat grafting means taking your own fat cells from one part of your body and processing it so it can be used in your face for volume correction. While fat grafting is a surgical procedure to harvest the fat, it allows for an unlimited supply of filler for large volume correction. Fat grafting is not as precise as some of the above products and is therefore not used for filling individual lines. There is usually an expected loss in the corrected volume initially, but after this, fat grafting can be a great permanent option.
-Dr. Jessica Kulak
