Selphyl, nicknamed the “vampire filler,” works with the platelets from the patient’s own purified blood to create a substance called “platelet-rich fibrin matrix” that stimulates the growth of new skin cells and collagen. Selphyl is used just as any other commercial filler in acne scars, smile, and frown lines. Results are evident in a few weeks. Doctors have used similar products for years in surgery to help decrease bruising and accelerate healing, but its cosmetic use got FDA approval this year. Unlike some artificial fillers that can cause severe allergic reactions, the body more readily accepts Selphyl.
Cost: $1,000 to $1,500 per injection
Downtime: A day or two
Since 2001, when researchers proved that bionic stem cells exist in fat cells, the race has been on to find ways to harvest and use them for breast augmentation and wrinkle fillers. As
Wired magazine reports in its November issue, two companies are vying for the cosmetic market. The San Diego-based biotech company
Cytori Therapeutics developed the Celution System that removes stem cells from harvested fat and injects the specially processed fat to create what the company guarantees will be a supple, natural, permanently enhanced breast. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong-based
AdiStem processes the harvested stem cells differently and is being used by some Los Angeles surgeons in facelifts and breast surgeries. (Neither machine has received FDA approval.)
Cost: $2,000 to $2,800 per breast (for Cytori)
Downtime: Minimal
Liposuctioning fat from plump areas of the body to inject it where it’s better used is not a new procedure. But doctors are finding new ways to handle the fat before injecting it—and new techniques of inserting into the skin—so that it is a more effective improvement to any nose job, breast augmentation or face work. The percentage of fat that survives the transfer to plump the skin varies and is heavily dependent on the skill of the doctor doing the surgery. When it works, it’s phenomenal. Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Brian Novack inserts fat into the face through the inside of the mouth and then rolls the fat into place. “These fat cells have an amazing rejuvenating capacity,” he says. “The skin becomes softer, more supple.” “It’s God’s filler,” says Beverly Hills plastic surgeon
Lawrence Koplin, who uses what he calls “stem cell enriched” fat to finesse breast implants. “No cutting. No stitches. No scars.” And, most importantly, he adds, “It’s permanent.”
Cost: $3,500 to $35,000
Downtime: A few days to a week.
This year, two devices hit the market claiming to eliminate fat without surgery:
Zeltiq, which blasts fat deposits with cold air and
Zerona which uses a low-level laser to burn it off. Results with both machines take weeks to manifest. But some doctors who have used them say they really work. Zeltiq, says Beverly Hills dermatologist
Jessica Wu, is “based on the theory that fat cells are fragile and sensitive to cold.” While Zerona, says plastic surgeon
Paul Nassif who has used the machine for about a year, “treats a temporary opening in the fat cell, releases the fat then the cell closes back up. The goal is drink a lot of fluid and have everything washed out.” Nassif says his clients can lose an average of three inches in four weeks when combined with diet and vitamins.
Cost: Zeltiq is $1,000 per treatment with as many as three treatments needed. Zerona is $1,700 to $3,800 for six sessions.
Downtime: None.
For years, dermatologists and plastic surgeons stuck primarily to the CO2 laser that left patients with red, oozing wounds and the promise of a youthful glow after weeks of hiding out to heal. Today, new machines can boost collagen in the skin with far less recovery time and pain, refining the texture of the skin, removing damage, and even tightening loose areas. Some, like the
SmartPulse, work biochemically causing skin cells to produce collagen. Others, like
Affirm, heat tiny dots of skin at a time to reduce healing time. Manhattan dermatologist Albert Lefkovits uses the radio frequency of The
Matrix to heat the collagen in deeper layers of skin, causing tightening. And for under the eye treatment, Novack uses a collagen-building plasma energy machine by the once-troubled company Rhytec that he says has eliminated his clients’ need for surgery on the upper and lower eyelids.
Cost: $350 to $1,500 per treatment with three to five treatments recommended
Downtime: Zero to four days.
In the last four or five years, dermatologists and plastic surgeons have discovered how to, as they say, “volumize” an aging face with products such as Juvaderm, Restylane, Perlane and Radiesse. They’ve proven so effective as to make the traditional facelift—and even some nose jobs—almost passé. “We put filler in very deeply at the bone and build it up,” says Beverly Hills dermatologist
Peter Kopelson. “It works amazingly well. But you have to know where to put it.” Over-doing fillers can create the dreaded
“Pillow Face,” but some doctors say judicious injections can fill out wrinkles and even lift the skin in a lunch hour. “Literally, it lifts their skin without pulling,” says Wu who says the products have revolutionized her practice. “You don’t even have to do it that much.”
Cost: $600-$1,000 per treatment, repeated twice annually
Downtime: None
Touted as “the liquid facelift,”
Sculptra was originally used to plump the faces of HIV positive patients who suffered severe loss of fat in the face. But then doctors started using the micro-beads of poly-L-lactic acid off-label to promote collagen growth wherever it is injected, reducing fine lines and wrinkles. FDA-approved for cosmetic use last year, it’s now considered by some doctors to delay the need for a facelift. Sculptra takes several injections over months to see the full effects, but it lasts for as long as two years.
Cost: $500 to $1500 per treatment
Downtime: None
The cosmetic industry’s wonder drug that has eradicated frown lines from Beverly Hills to Manhattan got FDA approval in October for the treatment of migraines. In the last year or so, doctors have begun using Botox to shrink large pores on the face. Meanwhile, dermatologists have learned to artfully apply it in the lower face in combination with fillers to reduce jowls and even the wrinkles on the neck. “By adding Botox along the jaw line and neck,” says Wu, “you rejuvenate the whole face. You can lift the corners of the mouth and smooth vertical bands on the neck.”
Cost: $400 to $1500 depending on the number of injections
Downtime: None
Plastic surgeon Novack calls the traditional facelift “an outdated insane operation” because it pulls the skin and gives the face an unnaturally tight look that often makes a patient look older and “done.” Novack, instead, uses minimal incisions behind the ear to lift the skin and fat off the face and then tightens the deep tissue or fascia underneath it by pinpointing each area with heat, using a radio frequency probe he invented. So the aging skin isn’t trimmed away, but tightened. “When I do faces, I don’t take anything out,” he says.
Cost: $100,000
Downtime: Three weeks
Five years ago, Beverly Hills plastic surgeon
Gregory Mueller invented a way to refine the jawline and eliminate a double chin without incisions, often without anesthesia and virtually no recovery time. Now, doctors around the country are using his technique of making a series of punctures in the ligaments along the side of the jawline, then inserting a system of sutures using a fiber optic rod under the neck. The sutures are sewn together, permanently tightening the area. “We just tie it in a knot and it lifts the skin and muscle underneath,” he says. “The results are natural appearing.”
Cost: $6,500
Downtime: Three to five days
