Welcome to Dermal Fillers

Dermal fillers are materials that are frequently used to correct scarring, wrinkles, and other depressions in the skin. They are often a kind of soft tissue designed in such a way that enables injection into the skin for purposes of improving the appearance. Generally, they are made of several types of materials of synthetic, man-made and natural categories, and they have been developed into various standards depending on the level of usage. For anyone suffering from problems like wrinkles, folds or depressions such as scars, derma fillers may be the right product for job. The procedure is quick, often just 30 minutes or less. Many people experience no pain at all and minimum side effects.

The good thing about derma fillers that might resolve the fears of a new user is the fact that their usage dates back to the early 1890s. Doctors found applicability in fat taken from patients. They discovered that they could give their patients a more youthful look by injecting it into the face or arms. This is a trend that has remained applicable even in today’s medical field. Doctors are still extracting fat from other parts of a patient’s skin and using it elsewhere. A fat tissue can actually be moved from a body’s region where it is not significantly required, and injected into another region of the body where it is needed. This is practical given the understanding that the body part where the fat tissue is transferred to is in some form of starvation as far as fats are concerned.

On the other hand, the part where the fat is taken from may have had excess fat to begin with, and this can be considered unhealthy because too much fat concentration in one part of the body is dangerous. It can often lead to other forms of complications that can later develop into long term illnesses that eventually prove difficult to treat. Therefore, the earlier the extra fat is transferred, the better for the patient. It is encouraging to note that this process is not painful at all and can usually be performed on any patient that displays a skin complication that can be treated by derma fillers.

So what exactly was used in the early times? Doctors in the mid-1900s found usage in paraffin. For a filler in the skin, they used silicone. However, this had its own shortcomings because there were some widespread reported difficulties as far as safety was concerned. From here, scientists began to explore other alternatives to the prevailing conditions. In 1980, doctors discovered some type of collagen, a form of naturally occurring filler material in the skins of cows. Upon further scientific tests and trials, the doctors established that the material combination would be safe for use on human beings, and this could effectively replace fat as a filler substance.

Collagen became the new material to use with no risks to human safety. The American Society for Aesthetic Surgery confirms that injections of collagen nature came out number thirteen as the most commonly conducted aesthetic procedure in the USA. In 2008, there were more than 58,000 reported treatments throughout the year. Of the 58,000, 49.6 percent of these applications uses bovine-derived products and 50.4 percent used human-derived collagen products. The extended use of hyaluronic acid based dermal fillers can perhaps explain a witnessed decrease in usage of human-derived collagen. The percentage difference stood at 8 percent. Recently, these kinds of fillers (hyaluronic acid) have shown signs of beating collagen to almost third place when one considers the most common of all aesthetic procedures in the U.S alone.

There was a decrease in usage of the collagen fillers by about 12.8 percent in 2008 when a total of 1.26 million treatments were recorded worldwide. Calcium hydroxlapatite alone is currently accounting for slightly less than 123,000 treatment cases, which reflects a percentage increase of around 3 percent since 2007. Polymetghyl megthacrylate was approved by the US FDA and currently shows usage in approximately 11,000 treatments in 2008, which is a remarkable decrease of about 10.6 percent from 2007.

Additionally, there has been tremendous usage of these materials in the UK. Currently, there are no recorded statistics to demonstrate the usage by figures in the country. This kind of treatment is not expensive and this explains the reason why many people decide to undergo the procedure. Everyone is looking for a quality product that is not too expensive, but meets the needs within a safe region of confidence. Another feature of this product that attracts people is that it works perfectly and never involves any surgery whatsoever. With surgery becoming more expensive and complex every year, the majority of patients will prefer treatments that do not require it. When presented with an alternative to surgery that can be trusted and costs significantly less, the choice is easy.