How does wrinkle correction change the image you project to the world? Surgeons at the Chicago Center for Facial Plastic Surgery sought to answer that question in a recent paper published in Dermatologic Surgery.
While many studies have documented the physical results achieved with dermal fillers like Restylane and Juvederm, few, if any, studies have documented how others perceive your appearance after such a treatment.
Using injections of hyaluronic acid filler, doctors fully corrected the nasolabial folds on twenty-two patients. To determine the effect on first impressions, they showed pictures of these patients to 304 people as blinded evaluators. They asked the evaluators about categories such as attractiveness, athletic ability, financial success, relationships and overall first impression.
“Significance was observed in all categories measured,” the authors conclude; “full correction of the NLFs with HA filler significantly and positively influences the first impression an individual projects.”
Funding and materials for the study were provided by Medicis, maker of Restylane.
You can access this study on PubMed
was announcing FDA clearance for the new Juvederm Ultra XC. The company is citing results from their clinical trial in which 93 percent of patients reported reduced pain with the new formulation. They are now marketing Juvederm XC as a comfortable alternative to regular Juvederm.
As we 
Although the economic news this week is looking optimistic, the job market is still a rough environment to navigate. We’ve had more than one patient comment about it and share suspicions about age, or appearance, negatively affecting job prospects. My neighbor told me last week that her job interviews hadn’t gone as well as she’d hoped and her explanation was, “if it isn’t my qualifications, it must be the crow’s feet.”
Many of us in the industry probably remember when collagen first received FDA approval over 20 years ago. People considering it at the time were hopeful about looking better, but scared about allergic reactions, painful injections, and swelling. In 2009, we have a wider variety of fillers to choose from that are safe and effective.
