Erasing the Lines of Time
Injectibles promise results similar to traditional facelift
Results can last anywhere from six months to one year on average.
There's another option now to the traditional face-lift.
"It's called the injectable thread lift," Dr. Donna Richardson said. "The benefit to the patient is it actually lifts the skin up." Lifts the skin up, without cutting into the flesh and pulling up the muscle. There's no surgery here, so the process is much shorter -- only about 15 minutes, and the recovery time is just a few days. Typically people have bruising, swelling and redness.
This new technique, which we've dubbed the "liquid face-lift" was invented by a nurse by the name of Leslie Thatcher, who licenses people one-by-one.
"What we would do previous to Leslie's technique would be to put the filler in this area to bring the area that's low up to the level of the skin around it. With Leslie's technique, we take the skin that's sagging and move it back a little bit."
When we talked to Richardson she was about to work on Juduye Roach, who owns a day spa up in Temecula, California and has seen the process done on other clients. About to turn 41, she looked in the mirror and wanted a change.
"Heavy cheeks is really prevalent in my family so I am excited to see how this works on me."
For Roach, Dr. Richardson used the filler Restylane. She says it has an antidote, so if she doesn't like the results, they can be changed. Richardson said there's no worry these days about the fillers hardening under your skin.
This process isn't cheap. Depending on the filler and how much you need, it can cost $565 to $1500 or more. Results can last anywhere from six months to one year on average.
Posted Wednesday, Jul 15, 2009 - 12:44 PM EST
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