What are Dermal Fillers

Dermal fillers are substances that are inserted into the skin to correct any abnormalities and make it smoother and less wrinkled. The fillers are most often used as part of cosmetic surgery to improve the appearance of someone who has wrinkles, scars or any other depressions. The fillers are either natural materials like collagen, which is found in all mammals, including human beings, or synthetic substances like hyaluronic acid. The materials that are used today are deliberately selected to be totally safe and inert, which means they do not have any reaction or side effect when they are injected into the skin.

Dermal fillers have been around for at least a century

The use of one form of dermal filler or another in order to improve the skin’s appearance is actually quite old. It was first used towards the end of the nineteenth century. In those days, fat was used to inject into the skin in small quantities. The fat was taken from one part of the body where there was too much of it or where its absence wouldn’t be noticed and then injected into parts of the face, legs or arms where the surface had become wrinkled. The use of human fat to improve appearance is still used by some cosmetic surgeons today.

Modern dermal fillers are entirely safe

In the post second world war period, when there was a rise in affluence and there were a larger number of people looking to improve their appearance, especially as they grew older, there were many attempts to find other substances to use instead of fat  as a dermal filler. In the early days, substances like silicone and paraffin were used. Both these two substances were later discovered to have a number of side effects and were gradually rejected as being too potentially unsafe to use. Bovine collagen (extracted from cows) began to be used from the 1980s and a little later it was discovered that human collagen could be used just as well, too. Both these substances are completely natural and have no known side effects on the human body. In fact, human collagen is already part of the body and is used as natural filler.

A number of other materials have been developed which also do the job very well. The most important is a synthetic substance called hyaluronic acid. Two other substances are used quite commonly. These are calcium hydroxylapatite and polymethyl methacrylate. Each of these synthetic substances is gradually increasing in percentage use by cosmetic surgeons.

The advantages of using dermal fillers

A procedure which involves the use of dermal fillers on parts of the skin which are wrinkled or sagging is relatively quick and painless. It does not involve surgery so is relatively popular. The fact that appears to be safe helps to boost its popularity. The dermal filler is carefully injected into the parts of the skin which need treatment. The procedure is almost pain free, especially because a local anaesthetic is normally used where the injections are made and the whole treatment might only take 30 minutes to an hour depending on the amount of skin that is being treated.

Because the procedure can be done relatively easily and quickly it means that the cost s kept down and is inexpensive compared to other forms of cosmetic surgery available in Britain.

If you are keen to take on a course of dermal fillers treatment in the UK to improve the appearance of your skin there are a list of skilled and experienced practitioners available at www.anyclinics.co.uk