Into the Groove
By Jenny Yuen Two new treatments – Dermalive and Dermadeep fill faces with youth.
Deep grooves should be reserved for a night out with your girlfriends, not a term used to describe your face. If you have deep crevasses you thought only surgery could fix, read on.
Since the early 1980s, doctors have been using collagen to treat patients who have deep grooves, wrinkles and scarring with collagen to “plump up” the face. Now there are two new products that claim to work better than collagen, providing longer-lasting, lifting results. Dermalive and Dermadeep are semi-permanent injectable implants designed for filling wrinkles and folds, or redefining lip contours.
Introduced in 2001 in the U.K., Dermalive and Dermadeep were approved for use in Canada last year, making them new, attractive procedures. According to Dr. Frances Jang, a cosmetic dermatologist in Vancouver, one advantage to these two products over other injectables is “patients don’t need collagen allergy testing” before getting a treatment because, unlike some of their competitors, neither Dermalive nor Dermadeep contain collagen. The Food and Drug Administration states that about three per cent of the population is allergic to collagen.
Jang has been using collagen on patients for more than 10 years and recently started using the Derma products based on a client’s needs.
“Some people who come in are aging and the natural volume in their face is disappearing,” she says. “Others are younger but don’t like the shape of their face – they may want more prominent cheekbones or want to get rid of acne scars that can be lifted with these kinds of products.”
The Derma details
Dermadeep works on deep folds and gives a better base for deeper grooves, while Dermalive addresses less prominent lines and wrinkles. Both products deliver inert beads in hyaluronic acid and acrylic hydrogel through a syringe. The hyaluronic acid is gradually absorbed by the body and replaced by the body’s own collagen over a two- to six-month period, says Jang, at which time she recommends they return for another treatment.
Dermalive and Dermadeep are particularly useful to clients with AIDS, says Jang. Both treatments help relieve some of the prominent “wasting” area below the cheeks that many AIDS patients encounter. The fillers also help treat hemiatrophy, a syndrome that breaks down fat, muscle tissue, skin cartilage and bone in the face. “Their faces are often asymmetric,” explains Jang. “The bones are left undeveloped, so we can to some degree correct some of those things. Or maybe an accident has left them with a deformity that we can fill with soft tissue. But generally we use Dermalive and Dermadeep for cosmetic reasons.”
Each Dermalive or Dermadeep injection takes about 30 to 45 minutes. Jang says most patients usually need anesthetic creams or blocks (the anesthetic is pooled around the nerves to create a wide area to protect patients from the pain of the needle) before the treatment.
As with any fillers, side effects exist and can include swelling and bruising, says Jang. “It’s a short-term problem and not really an issue,” she says. In the long term, Jang says “there’s a
rare incidence of what we call ‘granuloma’ – hypersensitivity reactions that occur up to a year later, where you can get lumps in the area where the filler was used. But that’s in less than one percent of the population.”
Jang says 10 percent of her clients now ask for facial fillers, including Dermalive and Dermadeep. “Expectations [about the Derma products] are managed realistically. It’s not a quick fix like the temporary fillers. It’s a slow, gradual buildup until you’re happy, and I think patients are happy.”
Editorial source: Dr. Frances Jang,
604-737-7100, www.skinworks.ca
More from Beauty Scene.com
|
|
