The Beauty Expert Donna Fay speaks about how plastic surgeons have a new, non-surgical weapon to aid in anti-aging.
Juvéderm Voluma XC was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December as the first injectable filler to instantly add volume to the cheek area. Similar to other fillers like Restylane, Juvéderm and Perlane, Voluma is made of hyaluronic acid, a natural substance found in the skin. But Voluma offers special benefits.
“It’s unlike anything else available,” says Donna. “You can lift the face, you can sculpt the face, you can reverse facial aging, and we can now do it in a way that lasts for at least 18 months, and in some cases up to 24.”
Dr Pearlman was among the small selected number of doctors nationwide who took part in an educational study. Donna Fay cautions that injecting Voluma requires special training and an understanding of such aesthetics as facial harmony and bone structure. So patients should see a doctor who has experience with Voluma, they say. “If a doctor doesn’t have an artistic eye, you can look really fake with it”.
“It also fills in space better, so a little goes a long way, and it has more lift, so it will pop up the skin more than the same volume of the other fillers,” said Donna, who has consulted several patients with Voluma, using an average of two or three syringes. “And it feels very soft and natural in the skin. You don’t feel it after it settles.”
Voluma also can be less painful than other fillers because it is injected deeper into the skin, where there are fewer nerves. For the same reason, it may be less prone to cause bruising, since it is injected under blood vessels.
“As we age, the ligaments and tendons that hold the fat pads in the skin expand, so everything goes south, and we get jowls and sagging. It can literally lift the face up. It’s a facelift that is anatomically correct, so instead of looking like you are in a wind tunnel, you look like you have the volume back when you were young.”
“I see it as a great option for people, like men, who can’t afford to be bruised every nine months. With this you can do it on a Thursday and take Friday off and be back at work on Monday, and no one will know you did anything.”
“I represent the face of health and Aesthetics, so it’s important for my face and body to look good, but I think we’re also responsible for our face and what we look like,” said Donna Fay. “So this is just a way to continue to project the best image for myself and the profession.”
Indeed, for men as well as for women, the lift effect can be significant.
“Men get that separated look in their mid-face — you see it in the mid-cheek. Just putting a little bit of filler takes decades off, and it is undetectable.”
Besides the cheek, they have also injected Voluma in other areas such as the hollows of the temples, the chin and the jawline.
And they have also used Voluma in conjunction with other fillers like Restylane to fill in the nasolabial folds — the creases that run from the sides of the nose to the corners of the mouth.
“We finally have something indicated for cheeks,” said Donna Fay. “Whether it’s going to be better than anything else we have on the market remains to be seen. I’m super excited to be working with it in Dr Pearlman’s practice and have it, but it also makes me a little nervous. Now anybody can inject it, and it doesn’t mean everybody has a great sense of aesthetics, like Dr Pearlman, so I advise consumers to use an experienced doctor.The best result is when you can’t tell. . . .”
“It works against gravity by adding to the cheeks, because if you lift — if put your finger at your cheekbone below the outer eye and pull up, you can pull the jowls up, and that is kind of the theory,” she added. “If we can place volume there we can pull up from the bottom and create a better jawline. That is great — until they stop looking like themselves.”