TOPIC: Restylane or Juvederm Voluma?

Hi Everyone,

My brain is starting to hurt already.

I would say that 90%+ of doctors injecting dont understand the ins and outs of rheology (science of fluids)for fillers. When I started there was none. And I still only have a basic functional grasp.

There are lots of factors that interact and overlap. Sometimes what you think might be the most important then turns out not to be. And each company then only reports certain elements of their products and if they do a comparison they only publish things that show their product in a good light and if their product does not do well in that test it goes to the bottom draw. No one ever comes to me and says \"look my product is not that great, we skimp on the safety/production values and we want to charge you a fortune for it!\"

(I got caught up and not finished this post for a few days....)

The article posted is useful but limited and a bit old.

Restylane/Perlane are the type of filler where the gel is cut up by the sieves into little bricks and made to be injectable by having some uncrosslinked HA. The Juvederm range are all \'monophasic\' smooth gels. These seem to have \'won\' and even the maker of Restylane has come out with a smooth gel too - Emerval.

I really dont know what is best. I am about to start work with a Phd researcher and try and get some published papers on the Calibre procedure. Then maybe we can get some industry support for more trials. I think this is a huge new area for the filler manufacturers - doubling the % of the population who have fillers (ie adding men) and them having 2 - 5/ as much per year. They should be lining up!

I\'m pretty confident that you\'ve found a good solution with Voluma, Dr. Oates, through clinical experience. My only concern is the circ scar area, which you\'ve already said you don\'t even inject anyway. I think perhaps belotero could work well there, though it wears off quickly.

We do inject under the circ scar. But it does have higher risk for looking slightly lumpy, especially if not massaged. So using a slightly less cohesive and softer filler like plain Juve or Volift (another made by the Juvederm group but slightly softer) may be the best answer towards the glans.

Thanks for your feedback Dr. Oates.

I am still in the conflict of not knowing if I should proceed with 10cc\'s of Restylane (Resyland Lyft) for $2200. It is the only thing the doctor here on the east coast provides. I don\'t know if I should continue with this option or travel for Juvederm.

I dont really have a problem with Restylane - and that is a great price. It tends to get a bit more swelling initially, but I say go for it!

Aleksk, for your first time using Ellanse, why would you use the 3 or 4 year version? Why not use the short version and a relatively conservative amount, and just as a trial to see how you like it? Doing it in that fashion would mitigate some of your stated concerns, while being a pioneer, in a filler that you clearly believe is superior than others.

.

Each company advises against mixing fillers, especially different classes of filler ie HA with stimulatory filler like Radiesse. But with HA\'s it is pretty common practice and there is not much of a reason to not do it.