Aesthetic medicine has made giant steps in the field of skin rejuvenation, overtaking cosmetic surgery in terms of advances, technologies and product formulations.
This trend is due not only to the growing number of requests, but also to the high expectations of increasingly informed and demanding patients.
As Dr. Pier Paolo Rovatti explains, patients very often turn to aesthetic surgeons asking to have a lifting effect without invasiveness and trauma. A request which, until a few years ago, might have seemed utopian, but which today finds a real answer thanks to modern and technologically advanced fillers such as calcium hydroxylapatite.
It is no coincidence that the Americans, who first used and researched this type of product, call treatment with calcium hydroxylapatite "liquid lifting".
What is liquid lifting?
While in the past almost all facial imperfections were treated with just one type of filler, today science allows us to choose and use a very wide range of biocompatible and reabsorbable injectable products.
According to Dr. Rovatti, this makes it possible to choose the ideal filler based on the type of imperfection, degree of aging and areas to be treated. Different types of filler treatments, continues Dr. Rovatti, produce different rejuvenation results depending both on the patients and the characteristics of the product itself.
For example, hyaluronic acid, which is the substance that is best known and most commonly used as a filler, is a product for rehydrating the skin, reducing wrinkles and restoring facial volumes. On the other hand, when the patient wants a global lifting effect, the filler used is calcium hydroxylapatite which, being much more viscous and more elastic than hyaluronic acid, allows the distension of facial tissues to be used to obtain the desired lifting effect, of traction or raising.
When to resort to liquid lifting?
As Dr. Rovatti explains, each face ages differently due to different genetic and environmental factors. Patients whose faces have lost tone and definition over the years are generally good candidates for liquid lifting based on calcium hydroxyapatite. Women who want facial rejuvenation that does not involve excessive volumetric increase, but a natural redistribution of already existing volumes, are also good candidates.
Fortunately, says Dr. Rovatti, almost all patients today ask for very natural results, which we doctors try to teach to our colleagues in training and explain to patients with unrealistic requests.
Global approach of liquid lifting
The old theory of eliminating wrinkles to rejuvenate the face has long since passed. Today we approach rejuvenation in a full face perspective, so not only distension of the nasolabial wrinkle or the marionette line, but total harmonisation of traits.
In this perspective of global rejuvenation, explains Dr. Rovatti, calcium hydroxylapatite is an excellent ally of our clinical practice because it is an extremely versatile product.
Dr. Rovatti clarifies that, with its particular formulation, calcium hydroxyapatite allows us to obtain three rejuvenating actions with a single product: correction of imperfections, lifting power and stimulation of collagen in the long term.
This latter action leads to renewal of the skin, which improves in terms of compactness and brightness during the weeks following treatment.
Today, filler treatments are witnessing a further improvement thanks to the addition of a small amount of anaesthetic in the product which reduces discomfort during injection.
Results of liquid lifting
In my experience patient satisfaction is immediate, says Dr. Rovatti, who, when he finishes treating a face, makes the patient look in the mirror in order to immediately note an incredible difference between the treated and the untreated side. Liquid lifting has an immediate rejuvenation effect that lasts for about 9-12 months thanks to the triple action of calcium hydroxyapatite-based filler. Correction of imperfections and the lifting effect are immediately visible, but the skin continues to improve qualitatively thanks to the stimulating action of collagen that takes place in the weeks following treatment.
In order to optimise the effects of liquid lifting treatment, I always suggest a rejuvenation plan to my patients that allows them to maintain the result obtained for a long time, with minimal retouching operations. In some cases, given the results obtained on the face, the same patients ask for further filler treatments to rejuvenate the neck, cleavage or hands.
Affirmation of innovative treatments
Nowadays in aesthetic medicine, says Dr. Rovatti, we no longer speak of exaggerated volumes and swollen faces, but of relaxed, firmed, toned faces. It is for this reason that fillers such as calcium hydroxylapatite are increasingly used and studied. The great progress made in the formulations of fillers and injection techniques, continues Dr. Rovatti, is due to the need of patients to obtain totally natural and non-invasive forms of rejuvenation. No patient is now willing to suspend their social and work activities to face invasive treatments and long recovery times.
A further example of this trend is the affirmation of microfocused ultrasound for non-invasive lifting of the face, neck and cleavage. With a single non-invasive session, collagen is stimulated in depth, counteracting tissue failure due to the passing of time.
Evolution of liquid lifting
Triple-action calcium hydroxylapatite, hyaluronic acids that integrate perfectly in the skin, microfocused ultrasound. As we have seen, concludes Dr. Rovatti, in recent years there has been a dramatic increase in progress in the field of skin rejuvenation, especially as far as non-invasive treatments and natural results are concerned. What will happen in the coming years? Scientific research will certainly make products increasingly evolved and performing and the already consolidated trend will grow to combine different types of treatment for enhancing results and responding in a safe and natural way to the requests of even the most demanding patients. For the time being, liquid lifting remains an innovation that meets modern needs perfectly.
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