Sculptra™ - Related FAQ's

Q:I look so old compared to my photographs of ten years ago. I am 56 but look 70. I went to a plastic surgeon who said I shouldn't do a facelift as a sole treatment but recommended Sculptra also. Why is this?

A: As we age, we lose a substantial volume of fat in the deep tissue planes of the face, especially in the inner cheek near the nose and the mid cheek. The fat had formed a structural support for your face for many years, but as it atrophied, the face became sunken and the support became deficient. The skin then, along with muscles, drop or sag and push over the smile crease that runs from the corner of the nose to the corner of the mouth. This deepens this smile fold. The lower cheek moves further “south” and forms a jowl. A facelift can lift the sagging skin but does nothing to replace the lost volume of the face. The facelift can make you look more sickly, gaunt, cachetic and old. The addition of volume helps rejuvenate the face. Fat injections are used as a graft and this can be quite satisfactory but many patients who are thin in their sagging face also become so thin that there is not enough fat on their body to use for fat grafts to their face. Sculptra is a “seed” rather than an immediate filler. It helps induce your own collagen formation by inducing the healing response and inflammatory cascade. Fibroblasts are your cells and they make collagen as a response to Sculptra. Sculptra, or Poly-L-lactic acid is injected usually three times, six weeks apart. The powder in the vial must be mixed with significant fluid (water and anesthetic). It is then injected to disperse the Sculptra particles evenly but the fluids will dissolve and the immediate plump effect will disappear. This doesn't mean the Sculptra isn't working. It is, by making your body start the process of stimulation of fibroblast production of collagen. The volume effect of Sculptra is a wonderful adjunct to the facelift for facial rejuvenation in many people.

Q: I need lifting and volume in my face so my doctor recommended a facelift but I don't want surgery. He then said I can do Ultherapy and Sculptra but can they be done together?

A: Sculptra is usually done three times, six weeks apart. It is not unusual for physicians to do a treatment of Sculptra immediately after the Ultherapy and then the other two treatments can be done in the successive six week periods.

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