As you age, your body produces less collagen, but you don’t begin to notice the effects of this natural process until they start to appear on your face in the form of lines, wrinkles, and hollow areas. At Blue Illusion Beauty, with locations in San Diego, Murrieta, and Carlsbad, CA, we are proud to offer a collagen-stimulating injectable called Sculptra Aesthetic. This injectable will naturally increase collagen levels in your problem areas to deliver subtle yet noticeable results.
How Long Does Sculptra Last?
Once you begin treatment with Sculptra, you can expect your results to appear gradually and last for two years or longer. This injectable delivers longer-lasting results than most fillers because the results come from your body’s natural collagen production abilities, not a synthetic product.
What Is Sculptra?
Sculptra is a collagen-stimulating filler that uses poly-L-lactic acid to stimulate the body’s collagen production abilities. Instead of injecting a synthetic form of hyaluronic acid beneath the skin, as most fillers do, this product will help your body create more collagen so that you get completely natural results.
The Importance of Collagen
Collagen is a protein that is imperative to the skin’s structural foundation as well as helping it maintain a youthful appearance. When collagen loss occurs as your age, your skin isn’t as smooth as it used to be. Collagen is important because it keeps your skin firm, elastic and helps maintain healthy joints. Collagen isn’t just in the deeper layers of the skin, but it can also be found in the blood, your bones, and your muscles.
Restoring Collagen
You can take different supplements to restore collagen to the body, but these supplements won’t help your body create more collagen as quickly or as effectively as this injectable. Taking a collagen supplement each day will help maintain optimal skin hydration and health.
However, if you’ve been including such a supplement in your anti-aging routine but still haven’t achieved the type of results you are hoping for, you may need something more substantial. That’s where this collagen-stimulating injectable comes in. It will help target specific problem areas in a unique yet effective way so that your body can naturally fill hollow areas.
How Does It Work?
This dermal filler contains tiny crystals within its formulation that help the body create stronger collagen support in the deeper layers of the skin. The body responds to the ingredients in this filler with increased collagen production that begins to become more noticeable within four to six weeks of an initial injection session. A Sculptra injection will be carefully administered during the treatment into specific areas of your face to target and treat aging, volume loss, and lines and wrinkles.
Treating Your Skin From the Inside Out
Your skin comprises three different layers, including the epidermis, the top layer, the dermis, the middle layer, and the subdermal layer. As you age, the signs of aging occur both in the internal layers of the skin and on the epidermis, but you only see the external aging. When you do, you’ll know that your skin’s structure is beginning to weaken, and you need something more to help it get stronger and restore youth to your appearance.
The aging process will affect the internal layers of your skin, but how and when that happens typically can be attributed to your genetics. How your skin looks from the outside is typically attributed to environmental factors and lifestyle choices.
Sun exposure, not using the right skincare products to nourish and protect your skin, and living an unhealthy lifestyle can contribute to the aging process. That, combined with the weakening structure of your skin’s foundational layers, will make the signs of aging more apparent.
What Does It Treat?
This injectable primarily treats volume loss in the lower half of the face, including the smile lines between the nose and the mouth, often referred to as nasolabial folds. It can also smooth chin wrinkles and marionette lines which are the laugh lines that outline your mouth.
Not only can this injectable help increase collagen production in the lower half of the face to combat wrinkles, hollow areas, and volume loss, but it can also be used to help treat and fill acne scars and perform a natural Brazilian butt lift.
Are the Results Immediate?
You will notice some immediate results, but they will slowly fade in the days following your treatment. The immediate results come from an injection of a saline-based formula below your skin’s surface. Your body will metabolize that formula, but the poly-L-lactic acid particles will remain, and your body will respond to them by increasing collagen production.
This injection process is quick, and while you will experience an immediate plumping effect, your final results won’t be apparent until several weeks after your initial treatment.
How Many Treatments Will I Need?
We typically recommend that patients schedule a series of three to four treatments with three weeks between each. Doing so will help you achieve the most comprehensive results so that your body can create the necessary amount of collagen in your area of concern to lift and smooth skin.
Post-Treatment Directives
Once injected with this filler, you will need to follow some aftercare instructions to achieve the best results. We may instruct you to use an ice roller to help enhance your results. We may also recommend that you perform facial massage in your treatment areas and will provide you with detailed instructions on how to do just that.
You’ll also be asked to avoid excess sun exposure, including UV lamp exposure. Wearing sunscreen, avoiding laying out in the sun, and wearing a hat and sunglasses whenever you are exposed to daylight can help not only protect your skin from sun damage but will ensure optimal results.
The Importance of Realistic Expectations
This injectable will deliver results, but they won’t be immediate. Hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers deliver immediate results that can be seen as soon as the treatment is over, and those results will continue to improve within the week following the initial injection.
This injection won’t completely improve your problem areas overnight, but your body will gradually create more collagen, and you will see your lines, wrinkles, and hollow areas improve. It’s important that you understand how and when results will appear going into this treatment process so that you have realistic expectations about not only the injection appointment but the process and your outcome.
Who Is a Candidate?
The best candidates for Sculptra Aesthetic are healthy men and women who want to address nasolabial folds or lines and wrinkles in the lower half of their face that have resulted from a decrease in the body’s collagen production. Some patients should avoid treatment, including those who have hypertrophic scars, those who have experienced keloid formation, and pregnant or nursing women.
Patients should be over the age of 18 and have realistic expectations about the treatment process. Those who have current skin infections, irritation, or active acne breakouts in the planned treatment area should avoid injections until their skin has healed.
Schedule Your Consultation
This collagen-stimulating injectable provides patients with a unique way to address aging. Our experts can help determine if this filler is the right option for you. Contact us today at one of our Blue Illusion Beauty locations in San Diego, Murrieta, and Carlsbad, CA, to schedule your initial consultation.