What to Expect From Your First Injectable Treatment Session

You’re as young as you feel. At least that’s how the saying goes. You might have the energy and attitude of a teenager, but what if your face doesn’t match your youthful feeling?

Fine lines around your lips, forehead wrinkles, and smile lines are just a few things that age you. A sunken look to your face due to a loss of volume is another.

Dr. Sharon Gertzman and her able and compassionate all-woman team at Serenity Medical Spa want you to know that an invasive surgical solution is not the only answer to these problems. 

She offers practical knowledge and technical expertise in a full menu of noninvasive treatments called injectables. These options allow you to look your best and avoid a more complicated procedure.

What are injectable treatments for facial rejuvenation?

The “injectable” part is self-explanatory, but Serenity Medical Spa offers two types. Both are noninvasive, but used for different purposes:

• Fillers are used to actually fill the lines that emerge on your face due to reduced collagen and elastin (proteins that make your skin resilient) production
• Neurotoxin injections are ideal for the lines caused by repetitive movements, like smiling, blinking, and making facial expressions. 

In the clinical world, we call these static and dynamic lines respectively, and each filler treatment smoothes the wrinkles differently, which makes sense because their origins are distinct. 

Fillers successfully address the lines that start at the bottom of your nostrils and extend down to the corners of your mouth (nasolabial folds), feathery lines that appear on the outline of your lips, your upper cheek area, and “marionette lines,” which start at the corners of your mouth and go downward toward your chin, creating a saggy, sad look.

Neurotoxins are great for smoothing creases that develop from making facial expressions repeatedly over many years. Neurotoxins banish forehead lines, the dreaded crow’s feet, and the vertical worry lines that develop between your brows. Sure, these lines appear because you’ve lived, laughed, and loved plenty, but they may make you look — and feel — old before your time.

Injectables treatments are safe, comfortable, brief, and most importantly, successful and long-lasting.

A wealth of injectable choices

The array of safe injectable treatment options that Dr. Gertzman provides means she can customize your treatment and match it to your goals and the areas of your face you want to focus on.

Filler options include multiple treatments that contain hyaluronic acid, which has taken the skincare world by storm due to its ability to plump up and restore elasticity to the skin. Our options include RestylaneⓇ, RestylaneⓇ Lift , RestylaneⓇ Silk, JuvedermⓇ XC gel, and RadiesseⓇ. Each adds volume to different areas of your face, from your lips and nasolabial area to your cheeks. 

SculptraⓇ contains Poly-L-lactic acid and is proven to stimulate collagen production in the center portion of your face.  

Results are wonderfully long-lasting — anywhere from six months to two years.

Neurotoxins all contain botulinum toxin A — the agent responsible for the illness botulism if ingested. When delivered safely via injection in controlled amounts, however, this same substance prevents nerve impulses from reaching your facial muscles, causing your dynamic wrinkles to soften and smooth out. 

BotoxⓇ is the one that started in all. At Serenity we believe that DysportⓇ has taken this science one step further and provides a slightly better result as far as time of action and longevity. Dr. Gertzman takes your medical history, including allergies, into account when she assesses which of these is appropriate for you. 

Some patients develop a resistance to both Botox and Dysport, in which case Xeomin, is substituted successfully. These treatments’ results last several months.

What’s an injectable treatment like, and will I need to plan for downtime?

We’re happy to report that injectable treatments are comfortable and have minimal side effects. Therefore, you don’t endure post-treatment downtime and can go right back to living your life after your treatment session. 

Depending on which treatment you receive and the site that gets treated, Dr. Gertzman may:

• Provide an injectable that has a pain-reducing agent in it
• Apply a topical numbing agent or ice before your treatment
• Gently massage your treatment area to ensure that your injectable is evenly distributed under your skin

WIth neurotoxin treatments, patients may not require numbing agents because the needles Dr. Gertzman uses are extremely thin and don’t pierce far below the skin. 

Depending on which treatment you receive, you may experience mild bruising, swelling, or redness afterwards, but these side effects are short-lived. Ice can help with swelling and bruising, while makeup can camouflage redness.

Learn more about injectables

Schedule a consultation with Dr. Gertzman to discuss how injectable treatments can minimize the visible signs of aging that you’d love to remedy. Call our office or reach out to us online to schedule an appointment.