Introduction to Dermal Fillers

Dermal fillers are a huge topic, over the next few weeks I’m going to take a look at various aspects of these treatments:

• How do they work

• How to find a good practitioner

• What to expect when you have a dermal filler treatment

• Are dermal fillers safe

• Should you look for a doctor to do your dermal fillers

First of all though, what do dermal fillers do for our skin?  Essentially, as we age we loose two things - volume and “bounce-back-ability”.  

Our skin contains two important proteins, collagen and elastin. Collagen gives us plumpness, firmness, volume and shape. Elastin pulls our skin back into position when it’s stretched through facial movements like frowning and smiling.  Without these our skin starts to take on an older looking appearance, we develop wrinkles, our cheeks become sunken, our eyes and temples look more hollow, we get saggy excess skin. 

Our bodies constantly break down and make new supplies of collagen and elastin but as we age the process of making them slows down. Over time this leads to a gradual reduction in the amount present in the skin. 

Aesthetic treatment is aimed at replacing the properties our skin is losing, restoring and enhancing that youthful, brighter appearance. For more on ageing skin see my blog post. Dermal fillers are one way of improving ageing skin.  Over the next few weeks we’ll explore them in-depth and go into some details about how they work and what to think about when considering having a treatment.