Dulwich Natural Beauty

Treatment-related questions

What is RESTYLANE?
How is a treatment performed?
How long will the treatment session take?
What can be treated?
Does it hurt?
How soon will I see the results?
What will I look like after the treatment?
What should I bear in mind after my treatment with RESTYLANE?
Can RESTYLANE be removed?
Can RESTYLANE replace surgical procedures?
What should I think about before I have RESTYLANE treatment?

Safety questions

Do I need to have a skin test?
Are there any side-effects?
Why do the lips sometimes become very swollen immediately after RESTYLANE treatment?
Can RESTYLANE be used if I have undergone laser treatment or chemical peeling?
Can patients with allergies of different kinds be more sensitive to RESTYLANE?

Efficacy questions

How long does the effect of a RESTYLANE treatment last?
Does RESTYLANE get stiffer in cold weather?
How will my skin look without follow-up treatments?

Miscellaneous

What does RESTYLANE contain?
What is hyaluronic acid?
How was RESTYLANE developed?

Treatment-related questions

What is RESTYLANE?

RESTYLANE is a gel that is injected into the skin in order to add volume to lips and lift up wrinkles and folds. RESTYLANE consists of hyaluronic acid, which is a natural substance already present in your body. Once in the skin, RESTYLANE works by creating volume. Some dermal fillers are derived from animal substances. The hyaluronic acid in RESTYLANE is non-animal.

How is a treatment performed?

During treatment, the crystal-clear RESTYLANE gel is injected into the skin in tiny amounts with a very fine needle. The gel produces volume under the wrinkle, which is lifted up and smoothed out. When enhancing lips or facial contours, RESTYLANE adds volume and shape to the treated area.

How long will the treatment session take?

Treatment with RESTYLANE is a very quick and easy process. As no pre-test is needed, the treatment can be carried out immediately. A treatment generally takes 30 minutes. The time differs somewhat, depending on the correction you wish to have performed.

What can be treated?

RESTYLANE can be used for smoothing out folds and wrinkles, lip enhancements and shaping facial contours. The most common areas are the glabellar lines (between the eyebrows), the nasolabial folds (from the root of the nose to the angle of the mouth) and the lips, although other sites can also be treated. Very superficial or very deep wrinkles may be difficult to correct. Please consult your nurse practitioner for an assessment.

Does it hurt?

Most people find the injections relatively painless. They may prick a little. If you like, a topical anaesthetic can be applied to the area being treated prior to your procedure. When enhancing the lips, a local anaesthetic injection is often given.

How soon will I see the results?

The results can be seen immediately.

What will I look like after the treatment?

Immediately after the treatment, you can expect slight redness, swelling, tenderness or an itching sensation in the treated area. This is a normal result of the injection. The discomfort is temporary and generally disappears within a few days. After a lip treatment, the lips may become swollen and look somewhat uneven. This can persist for a few days (up to a week). If the discomfort continues, please contact your nurse practitioner.

What should I bear in mind after my treatment with RESTYLANE?

During the first 48 hours after your treatment, do not massage or rub the treated area. If you have had lip enhancement, avoid puckering your lips for the first two days after the treatment. Until the initial swelling and redness have resolved, do not expose the treated area to intense heat (e.g. in a solarium or by sunbathing) or extreme cold.

Can RESTYLANE be removed?

No However, RESTYLANE dissolves naturally with time. If you feel uncertain about the desired result, you can choose to have the treatment carried out in stages on different occasions.

Can RESTYLANE replace surgical procedures?

No. However, RESTYLANE is sometimes used in conjunction with surgery to fill out wrinkles that cannot be removed by surgery.

What should I think about before I have RESTYLANE treatment?

Look at yourself in the mirror and think about the result you are expecting. Try to convey your expectations to your physician before the treatment and ask him or her what is possible.

Safety questions

Do I need to have a skin test?

No

Are there any side-effects?

The rate of reactions to RESTYLANE is very low. However, after the treatment some common injection-related reactions may occur, such as swelling, redness, pain, itching, discoloration and tenderness at the injection site. These typically resolve spontaneously within a few days after injection into the skin and within a week after the injection into the lips. Other types of reactions are very rare, but about 1 in 2000 treated patients have experienced localised reactions thought to be of a hypersensitive in nature. These have usually consisted of swelling at the injection site, sometimes affecting the surrounding tissues. Redness, tenderness and in rare cases acne-like formations have also been reported. These reactions have either started a few days after the injection or after a delay of two to four weeks, and have generally been described as mild to moderate and self-limiting with an average duration of two weeks. This text does not contain all the information known about these products. For more information please consult your practitioner.

Why do the lips sometimes become very swollen immediately after RESTYLANE treatment?

The cause of this is not yet known, but there is no reason to believe that this is an immunological reaction. Normally, the swelling is gone within a week after injection into the lips.

Can RESTYLANE be used if I have undergone laser treatment or chemical peeling?

If you have recently had some other kind of facial treatment, you are recommended to wait until the treated area is totally healed and the skin has normalised (usually four to six weeks) before you undergo a RESTYLANE treatment.

Can patients with allergies of different kinds be more sensitive to RESTYLANE?

So far, no connection between patients with allergies and patients that report a reaction to RESTYLANE has been established.

Efficacy questions

How long does the effect of a RESTYLANE treatment last?

The length of time the effect of a RESTYLANE treatment lasts is very individual and depends on many factors, such as the structure of your skin, lifestyle, age, the degree of perfection demanded and the injection technique of the practitioner. Experience indicates that touch-up and follow-up treatments will add to its duration. Most people choose to have a new treatment within a year after the treatment of wrinkles and folds and within 6 months after a lip enhancement.

Does RESTYLANE get stiffer in cold weather?

You should not expose the treated area to intense heat (e.g. in a solarium or by sunbathing) or extreme cold for the first few days after the treatment in order to avoid the risk of inflammation as the area has been disturbed. However, once RESTYLANE has integrated into the body, it will adjust to your normal body temperature.

How will my skin look without follow-up treatments?

The correction will gradually disappear until your skin looks like it did before the treatment. Follow-up injections will help you maintain your correction.

Miscellaneous

What does RESTYLANE contain?

RESTYLANE consists of 20 mg/ml of stabilised hyaluronic acid and physiological sodium chloride solution with a pH of 7. All RESTYLANE products are clear, transparent and viscous gels. The only difference between the products is the size of the gel particles. In contrast to other similar products, the hyaluronic acid in RESTYLANE is not produced from animals. This means that there is no risk of disease being transmitted or allergic reactions being elicited if you are sensitive to common foods, such as beef, chicken and eggs.

What is hyaluronic acid?

Hyaluronic acid is a natural substance that is found throughout your body. It gives volume to the skin, lubricates the joints and gives the eyes their shape. The hylaluronic acid in RESTYLANE is stabilised for long duration and is not of animal or human origin.

How was RESTYLANE developed?

After many years of research, Dr Bengt Ågerup and the company Q-Med in Uppsala, Sweden, succeeded in developing a way of using a Non-Animal, Stabilised, Hyaluronic Acid to replace the loss of volume in the skin.The first application, RESTYLANE, was launched in 1996. Before this, only collagen made from cow hide and hyaluronic acid made from rooster combs had been available.