Granulomas, lumps, and swelling have been reported in Bellafill® patients and may form years after injection. Granulomas, lumps, and swelling frequently resolve over time or with treatment.
Answer: Bellafill bumps on face
These are usually treatable using 5FU and Kenalog. If this doesn't work, excision needs to be done.
The duration of improvement with Bellafill® varies between patients. Results are usually visible immediately, but take 2-4 weeks to settle in. Bellafill® contains non-absorbable PMMA microspheres.
You should start noticing some of the results of Bellafill almost immediately. The first effect is the smoothening out of the skin due to the microspheres stimulating your collagen production. Immediately after the procedure, you might notice some swelling in the injection site. This can last for up to two weeks.
You can try massage, it won't hurt but probably won't do much. Poorly placed Bellafill almost always needs surgical excision.
Granulomas, lumps, and swelling have been reported in Bellafill® patients and may form years after injection. Granulomas, lumps, and swelling frequently resolve over time or with treatment.
You may experience temporary swelling, redness, pain, bruising, lumps/bumps, itching, and discoloration at the treatment site. These side effects are usually transient and typically resolve within 1–7 days. You may experience lumps/bumps/papules that may occur more than one month after injection and that may persist.
Answer: After performing thousands of syringes of Bellafill over the last 7 years, half of my patients returning 9-12 months later notice that their Bellafill looks even better than after the initial treatment.
Bellafill is considered a long term, semi-permanent dermal filler. This means that once it is injected, it cannot be dissolved or removed from the treated area. Unlike hyaluronic acid dermal fillers that can be removed or dissolved with hyaluronidase injections, PMMA stays put in the skin once it is injected there.
Hyaluronidase will not help with fillers such as Radiesse, Bellafill, and Sculptra. In certain patients, a steroid injection may help reverse the effects of some of these fillers to an extent, but the only surefire way to “undo” the results of these fillers is to wait for them to be absorbed by the body.
Bellafill - A Collagen Stimulator
When Bellafill is injected, the PMMA and collagen gel provide immediate correction. Over time the collagen gel dissipates and fibroblasts migrate in and around the PMMA microspheres.
For instance, a 39 year old with deep lines might achieve full correction with just 1 or 2 filler syringes whereas at age 66, the same person might require 4 or 5 syringes to adequately treat the same areas.
TAKEAWAY. Experiencing lumps in lips after injectable filler is extremely common—and lumps most often resolve naturally with time. Gentle lip massage 5-7 days after the treatment can help smooth any lumps and bumps in the lips.
Lumpiness is very common to feel in your skin in the days after injection of dermal filler into the face, including the upper lip body and the cheeks and the chin area and along wrinkles and folds when injected to lift these. It will usually resolve within a couple of weeks.
If your lumps last longer than two weeks, they may have been caused by congealed hyaluronic acid. Although this cause is rare and uncommon, this can be corrected by injecting hyaluronidase into the lump. Hyaluronidase, like hyaluronic acid, occurs naturally in the body and is used to dissolve filler when needed.
As a 5-year filler, Bellafill won't go away nearly as fast as Restylane or Juvederm. Many doctors only prefer Restylane and Juvederm, not because these temporary fillers are any better than Bellafill, but because they know that if they make a mistake, a temporary filler goes away quicker.
A published journal article states that higher doses [of hy'dase] can lead to damage of native extracellular matrix glycosaminoclycans, leaving a gaunt appearance with poor skin texture (Figure 4). Patients are increasingly presenting with hyaluronidase-related damage, which is often untreatable.
If the filler is in a location further away from direct blood flow than other locations, then this means that cells that secrete hyaluronidase will not be able to reach the hyaluronic acid gel, and will therefore be unable to dissolve it.
Due to the microsphere support structure, your skin will continue to improve for 12 months, and patients have a 90% satisfaction rate at this point. It's likely that even after 5 years your skin will continue to look healthy and smooth. Many people experience results that can last as long as 8-10 years after injection.
In my experience with performing a high volume of Bellafill treatments for many years, I find that not only can Bellafill last 5 years, but as a collagen stimulator, Bellafill also gives a more natural appearance than hyaluronic acid fillers like Juvederm and Restylane.
Each tiny little bead of PMMA is only 40 microns in size or about 3 times the size of a red blood cell and each syringe of Bellafill has about 0.13 cc of PMMA in it.
A nodule can persist for weeks and sometimes months. They are usually asymptomatic but can be tender and/or itchy. They are often reported by parents to feel like a 'pea' size lump under the skin. They usually resolve spontaneously without treatment or investigation.
Typically, they are treated with intralesional steroids and hyaluronidase with good resolution. If no clinical response is seen, a biofilm should be suspected and the patient should be placed on broad-spectrum antibiotics for a minimum of 4 weeks that include quinolones and macrolides.
If it's a hyaluronic acid filler such as Juvederm or Restylane, it can be dissolved with hyaluronidase and it will go away within a couple of hours - and that's what should be done. If it is from Sculptra or Radiesse, it can be injected to break it up.