Overfilling in the cheeks and under the eyes obliterates the natural lid-cheek junction. The whole mid-face becomes one continuous bulge, and the eyes become smaller, much like a pillow.
Although rare, complications from dermal fillers can be devastating. The most serious complications are vascular. Vascular occlusions can lead to necrosis (tissue death), scarring and, even more seriously, blindness. Indeed, dermal fillers have already led to 98 reported cases of blindness (Beleznay et al, 2015).
To see rejuvenating effects around the eyes and the upper third of the face, all it takes is a delicate amount of filler. Shot into the temples you'll find brows are instantly lifted and the eyes appear wider and opened.
Cheek fillers, also known as cheek augmentation treatment, provide volume to and around your cheekbones. Dermal fillers are used to create that instant 'plumping' effect, restoring and boosting the volume of the cheeks and give definition to the natural cheekbone structure, recreating the youthful contours of the face.
Not to be confused with chipmunk cheeks (the name is self explanatory), pillow cheeks describe the look when excessive cheek fillers obliterate the natural lid-cheek junction. This causes a continuous swollen face from the lower eyelids to the mid face, like a pillow. The eyes also look smaller and squashed together.
Unfortunately, having fillers injected into the face can make festoons more noticeable by removing eyelid fullness under the eyes, making them appear worse. Additionally, the festoons can worsen when the surgery is performed to remove fat from the lower eyelid through standard blepharoplasty.
Treating with 1ml at a time is certainly appropriate for some areas, such as volumising lips or having smaller tweakments into other areas of the face. Sometimes, however, more than 1ml may be required – in the cheeks, for example – as 1ml may not make a discernible difference.
Cutthroat cheeks
Those who want to slim their face should consider cheek augmentation with dermal filler. By adding volume to the cheeks, the cheeks appear larger and lower half of the face appears thinner.
Swelling is completely normal after your procedure, so don't freak out if your cheeks look "bigger" or more lifted than you intended. Swelling can distort the shape, so give yourself about five days for the volume to settle before you assess your filler.
One concern that many of my patients have is whether cheek filler will make their face look wider, fatter, or give the dreaded “chipmunk” look. In actuality when placed in the right area, cheek filler can make your face look slimmer and more contoured.
Fillers won't reduce puffiness under the eyes, but they can improve the appearance. Dermal fillers are usually used to fill in the hollows below the fat pad so that the lower eyelid blends into the cheek.
The popular misconception about dermal fillers is that they can make your face and nose look bigger. However, this is not true at all. They can do the opposite.
Incorrect filler choice or placement can exacerbate the appearance of the cheek bags known as festoons, which can contribute to under-eye puffiness. As a general rule, permanent fillers, including Sculptra, should not be used under the eyes.
Filler migration is the movement of a dermal filler from its injection site to another area of the body. While it is possible for fillers to migrate, this side effect is extremely rare and can be avoided by choosing a qualified injector.
Where Facial Filler Migration Occurs. In rare cases where there is facial filler migration, it typically occurs in two locations. They are most likely to migrate around the lips or under the eyes. It often is shown on social media as protruding [or receding] slightly, like an artificial trail of lumps.
Dermal fillers are also used to relieve a look of tiredness outside of the direct eye area. They are particularly effective for “plumping” the cheek area to get rid of the drawn look that often makes people look unwell.
“Proper placement of mid-face and lower face filler should not significantly affect the smile,” he shares. With that said, “if an overly firm filler is used or if the region is overfilled, an unnatural appearance can result as the lips push against stiff surrounding tissues,” he adds.
Specifically, the six danger zones are the glabellar area, temporal region, lip and perioral area, nasolabial fold area, nasal area and the infraorbital area.
Fortunately, dermal fillers work very quickly, and you won't have to wait twelve months to see the full benefits of your injections. That said, these injectable treatments take some time to integrate into your tissues, and it's normal for your dermal filler to take up to two weeks to fully settle into your face.
Dermal filler will not cause the skin to stretch and sag, once the filler naturally breaks down. The only case where this would happen is if the face were to be grossly overfilled with extreme amounts of dermal fillers, which is something we most certainly do not do at Cityskin.
Dermal fillers can be used to restore mid-face (cheek) volume and sculpt the jawline, in order to reduce the appearance of sagging jowls. The procedure is not painful, does not require any significant down-time and is excellent at lifting and sculpting the skin, where volume needs to be replaced.
Again, the amount you need all comes down to how much volume you have lost and the results you're looking to achieve, but practitioners will generally use 1-3ml cheek filler per cheek.
Cheeks. When doing filler injections for the cheeks, we typically recommend 2-6 syringes. Weight loss and illness can also negatively impact the fat pads in the cheeks, causing patients to need more filler to restore them to a youthful appearance.
This happens when the filler was injected too superficially. Patient may take notice to the uneven appearance several weeks post treatment or 3+ months post treatment when the body starts to slowly metabolize the filler. Additional areas that can be “botched” are cheekbones, chin, marionette lines, etc.