After Fillers

Immediately After Your Dermal Filler Injections

If you received local anesthesia along with your dermal fillers, you may be asked to wait in a recovery area for half an hour or so after your injections are done, so the clinical staff can monitor you and make sure you don't have any unusual reactions to the medication. Otherwise, you will probably be free to go a soon as the procedure is finished. If you did not receive anesthetic, you probably don't need anyone to drive you home.

The Recovery Period

Because dermal fillers are much less invasive than most kinds of cosmetic surgery, patients do not generally require much of a recovery period. Most doctors advise you try to take it easy for the first twenty-four hours or so and keep movement of the area to a minimum, but you do not have to be on bed rest, and you probably won't need someone to stay in the house with you. You should try to avoid letting anything bump your injection site, as the area is still healing. Some doctors also recommend avoiding alcohol for the first 48 hours after your injection to speed recovery.

You will probably experience some combination of bruising, swelling, mild pain, redness, and itching at the injection site for the first day or two. These are very normal side effects of dermal fillers, and are not a cause for alarm. Depending on what kind of injection you received, your doctor may have prescribed you a medication to help you deal with the pain. If he or she did not and you are feeling overly sore, you should clear it with the doctor or their clinic before you take any over-the-counter medications, as some of them may have unintended side effects in combination with your injections, and others may increase bleeding or bruising. Applying ice or a cold pack to the area can help keep the bruising and swelling down.

One unlikely problem you may experience is the development of small lumps called nodules under your skin near the injection site. These lumps are perfectly harmless and will eventually go away, but because they can be noticeable and frequently take as long as two to three months to dissolve on their own, if you should notice you have them contact your doctor right away. He or she may have another chemical they can inject you with to help break down the lumps more quickly.

If you have to, you can go back to work or other engagements the day after your dermal filler injections, but you should be advised that there will probably be visible signs. For some this is less important, but for those who are self-conscious about their appearance or for whom the first impression is very important to their business success, staying home may be the better option.

Final Fillers Results

The final results of most kinds of dermal filler injections should show up within a week, or two on the outside. Swelling, redness, and other side effects should be gone, and the filler should have had enough time to reach its maximum size. In most cases, all but the deepest wrinkles should have vanished completely, and folds or creases should be at least noticeably diminished.

At this point, your face should be completely healed, and you should be able to resume all normal activities. Put on makeup, wash, and care for your face as you normally would, and enjoy your new appearance! If you plan to continue getting fillers to maintain your results, you may want to make a not in your calendar a few weeks before the time when your current fillers are expected to start degrading, so you can call your doctor again and schedule another appointment(s). This will help you to remember to get new injections in time, so you don't start to regress before you can get in again, and you don't have to deal with the embarrassment of a changing appearance from week to week.

If two or more weeks have passed and you are still not satisfied with you appearance, you may want to consider scheduling another appointment with your doctor to discuss what can be done. In some cases, if the doctor is at fault for incorrectly administering your fillers, he or she may be willing to touch up your face for free. In other cases, the problem may just be that you didn't get enough of the filler to completely fill in the crease or creases you wanted to. In this case, you can get more injections to try and remedy the problem, but you will probably have to pay for them yourself.

In some extreme cases, dermal fillers may not be sufficient for what a patient is trying to achieve, and they may need to investigate other options such as a facelift.