Why would anyone get their fillers dissolved? They’re the number two aesthetic treatment worldwide! Millions of people are queuing up for fuller cheeks, contoured features and plump, shapely lips.
However, some celebrities are rocking the boat by deciding to get their filler removed, encouraging us to re-evaluate our attitude towards this procedure.
I’ve never felt comfortable with very large lips, but thanks to celebrity role models and social media stars, overfilled lips are becoming the norm. I’m glad to see people challenging the trend, with Love Island star Charlotte Crosby making the headlines by having her lip filler chemically dissolved. She put a question mark over the value of excessive lip fillers, while cosmetic doctors are exploring the risks of overfilling.
For example, Dr Harris deliberately draws attention to the distortion caused by overfilled lips and cheeks. He believes that too much filler leads to ‘alienisation’, with features enlarged outside the normal range for the individual in question.
However, it’s not always an unscrupulous doctor or an excessive treatment that leads to these strangely exaggerated results. Many people forget what they looked like before treatment and return for more or the substance takes longer to dissolve than we originally thought. The patients believe that they’re in need of a top-up while it’s still in their system, leading to a double dose of filler.
We all think about our appearance. Low confidence is often the motivation to have an aesthetic treatment such as dermal fillers, as it helps us to embrace how we look. However, cosmetic treatment has been linked to an extreme preoccupation with appearance, known as body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). People with BDD spend a disproportionate amount of time obsessing over minor or imagined flaws. This can be enormously upsetting, so it’s no surprise they turn to cosmetics to try and fix the problem.
It’s a difficult issue for us practitioners to identify, especially as fewer than 10% of patients with BDD are satisfied with the results of their treatment. They move on to other practitioners to correct this perceived problem or their anxieties transfer to another area of the face or body. Their constant quest to fix the flaw leads to distorted, overfilled features.
Now, not everyone with overfilled features is suffering from BDD. After all, we all worry about our appearance to some extent and BDD is the extreme end of the spectrum. In my practice, I tend to see patients who are delighted with a filler treatment, but quickly forget what they looked like before the procedure. They want a more discernible difference, so they come back wanting another treatment.
It’s easy to see how people’s faces become overfilled, especially as fillers may last much longer than we think. Alice Hart Davis, a beauty journalist and author, discovered that 35ml of dermal filler is still present in her face, even though we expect it to have dissolved naturally in less than two years.
Not at all! They help millions of people to look youthful, including me! However, we do need to take care.
In my clinic, I limit the amount I’m prepared to place at one time, assessing my patients via ultrasound to determine if any filler remains. This helps me decide if it’s suitable for them to have more treatment or whether I should direct them to an alternative, of which we have many. When I do conduct treatments, I tend to use Juvederm, which creates wonderfully subtle and natural-looking results.
Are you interested in dermal fillers? Visit our website for more information or contact us to book a consultation.
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The excitement of Christmas has faded away, replaced by a new year! We often see this as a new start and a chance to reset, as we abstain from bad foods, alcohol and an unhealthy lifestyle. We start a diet instead or take up running. However, you want to be careful with this ‘new year new me’ philosophy!
There’s one big problem with this mindset – it doesn’t work! Studies show that 23% of people give up on their New Year’s Resolutions after one week, while 43% expect to give up before the end of January. In fact, less than 10% of people successfully continue with their new lifestyle!
‘New year new me’ won’t motivate you for very long, especially after a slip-up. You need a plan for a long-term goal because you can rarely make lasting changes based on an impulse. As a dentist, I believe in making small changes, which culminate in significant improvements.
Take alcohol for example. From a skin perspective, we’re in favour of reducing your intake. Too much alcohol dehydrates the skin and reduces elasticity, leading to fine lines, creases and a dull, dry complexion. It can also give rise to conditions like psoriasis and rosacea, to say nothing of the increased risk of skin infections. On the other hand, going cold turkey can be a mistake. It doesn’t allow any flexibility for what can be a big lifestyle change (depending on how much you’re used to drinking). Similarly, you might be invited to a social event and feel like you’re unable to enjoy a drink, leading to regret, resentment and an eventual return to bad habits.
Instead of being stern with yourself, follow a little-by-little approach. Try giving up alcohol during the week and allowing yourself 3-4 units at the weekend or at a party. It may feel like a little change, but imagine the impact after one, two or three months! You’ll be in a much healthier state, without the inevitable disappointment caused by the ‘new year new me’ attitude.
There’s more to January than giving up bad habits. Many of you contact me in the winter, asking me to restore your faces after the festive period. You might be searching for a quick fix, hoping that I’ll turn around and present you with a miracle cure. We have some excellent treatments at No. 4, including luxurious Hydrafacials and healing light therapy, but they’re not magic. I can’t solve all your problems with the wave of a wand or give you an undetectable treatment with no downtime.
We’re not here to transform you into your ‘new year new me’ ideal. We’re here to walk alongside you as you seek to renew your skin and age well. Ageing well takes commitment, much like a New Year’s Resolution, which is why we encourage you to stop and think about the best ways to achieve your goals.
We’re partners, you and me. You trust me to listen to you, identify your main concerns and then come up with a plan. I might direct you to Su’s Skin Program, ideal for investing in your future complexion. Alternatively, I might point you to my own skincare plan, perfect for combating signs of ageing and menopause. Through 12 in-depth sessions, I’ll boost your collagen production, reduce fine lines and soften wrinkles, helping you achieve a healthy, glowing appearance.
Are you ready to take the first step? Then contact us to book a consultation! It’s the best opportunity to find the right treatment.
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It still boggles my mind that fine line and wrinkle treatment, using botulinum toxin, can be so effective! More so, it amazes me that over the decades that I have been offering this treatment, more uses keep emerging. From helping depression to boosting skin health, the treatment options available to my patients keeps on growing!
However, the downside can be having to return multiple times a year, which isn’t great if you don’t like needles! So here are some top tips to help you extend the time between your visits…
Making sure your doctor/dentist/nurse practitioner is experienced will go a long way to ensuring you get the right areas treated appropriately. Some patients are regularly recalled by their injector to get ‘top ups’ but, in my opinion, this shouldn’t be necessary, unless it’s the first time you have been treated by the person.
Of course, your body isn’t always predictable, so occasionally you may require adjustments to your fine line and wrinkle treatment after a few weeks. Having regular ‘top ups’ will make Botox® less effective for you, so it’s important to avoid them if you can.
Consider not using face scrubs, masks or toners one week before your treatment. These can alter the chemistry of your skin by causing inflammation, which may result in your fine line and wrinkle treatment being less effective.
Ask your injector about other brands that might work for you. After many decades, new botulinum brands have now been developed, each with their own characteristics and benefits. This means that, if your regular treatment with the Botox® brand isn’t working as well as you’d like, your injector now has other brands they can try to see if they give you better fine line and wrinkle treatment results that last longer.
Any experienced doctor/dentist /nurse will be able to discuss the alternative brands that are available and give their advice on whether they may be helpful to you.
In a study by Koshy JC et al. (Journal of Drugs and Dermatol 2012 Apr;11(4):507-12), researchers found that zinc and/or phytase supplementation boosted the effects of botulinum treatments by 30% on average.
‘Surprisingly, the results showed that in over ninety percent of the patients studied, the zinc/phytase combination resulted in a remarkable improved responsiveness to treatment of blepharospasm using the same amount of botulinum toxin as previously used’, said Soparkar, M.D., Ph.D., an oculoplastic surgeon. ‘The toxins seemed to have a greater effect and last longer. Potentially, this could mean using less toxin, offering patients financial savings, greater safety, and more consistent results.’
Remember that this requires some planning, as studies have shown that you have to start zinc supplements 4 days prior to treatment for them to have any effect!
Now you know my top tips to get the best results from your fine line and wrinkle treatment, it’s time for you to get yourself booked in! You can do so quickly and easily on our website. You can also find all of our contact details on this page in case there are any questions that you would like to ask.
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There’s no doubt that injectables like fillers and Botox® are the most effective line-reducing treatments available. Others might help to some extent but they will never achieve what injectables can. Furthermore, these treatments, in the right hands, are very safe and almost painless. The proof is in the sheer number of people who have been treated worldwide! Allergan reports that, as a brand leader in the field of dermal fillers, they recently achieved a major milestone for their key brand Juvéderm with ‘100 million syringes of their product delivered globally’. Isn’t that incredible?
Some of you might be reluctant to try injectables for various reasons. You might feel scared about ‘losing’ your expressions or you’re worried that you won’t look natural and that others will know you’ve visited a clinic… or are you just scared in general?
Rest assured, safety is my top priority when treating my patients. I like to see myself and my team as ‘gatekeepers’.
Gatekeepers, like us, keep you safe and won't recommend a treatment that's not in your best interest, so there’s no danger of you looking ‘overdone’. If a treatment isn’t right for you, we’ll say so! It’s not just about the look though, we also make sure that you’re in the right headspace. The only reason to undergo any of our procedures is because you want to. Don’t ever forget that! Accountable to our registered bodies (the GDC and HIS), we have to act within clear clinical and safety guidelines or risk getting struck off.
In order to be a gatekeeper, you must be properly trained. I have a Level 7 postgraduate OFQUAL qualification in injectables and I’ve been a dentist for years! What’s more, at No. 4, we have fantastic knowledge and experience - Su and I have over 60 years of clinical experience combined (we know, we don’t look old enough)!
The most important thing when choosing your clinic is to make sure the practitioners are fully qualified. The experience never hurts too though!
You should always expect the best!
Good gatekeepers will always give you all your options and give you time to make your decision as to whether to have treatment or not. We’re not saleswomen, we’re beauty practitioners! We will always conduct a thorough consultation and get to know you first. If injectables don’t suit your medical profile, lifestyle or expectations, we will let you know. After all, we don’t just deal with treatments, we deal with people.
It’s also important that you know you will receive good aftercare. You shouldn’t have your treatment and get kicked straight out of the door! You need to know how to best maintain your results. We’re always on hand to offer advice on which products will suit your skin and my team always want to ensure that you’re happy with your results. In short, you won’t get away from us that quickly…
If you want to get rid of lines and wrinkles, injectables are the best way to do so, but only when you're being treated by experienced, caring professionals.
The first thing to do is book in for your consultation, you can do this easily online. If you’re not quite ready for that, it may be helpful to get to know our clinic better, you can learn more about us on our website or by following us on Facebook and Instagram.
Time and time again my clients ask me, ‘Nicci, what happens when my treatment wears off, does everything collapse and will things be worse than before as a result of me having this treatment?’ The answer is a big, fat no! Your Thread Lift, Botox® or Dermal Filler will not only offer stunning results straight after your procedure but also keep your skin looking fresh and youthful in the long run!
‘Nicci!’ I hear you cry, ‘how on Earth can my Thread Lift, Botox® or Dermal Filler keep me looking my best after the product has worn off?’ Well, they do so by increasing your collagen synthesis.
Collagen is a naturally occurring protein in the human body. It’s an essential component of connective tissues and it also gives our skin strength and elasticity. Boosting your collagen production means tighter, more youthful-looking skin!
If you know me and my clinic, you’ll be aware that Thread Lift, Botox® and Dermal Filler treatments are my specialities. I focus on them as they are proven to help you age positively. This means you age well, still looking like yourself but better!
Let’s examine the longevity of these options a bit…
Longevity:
Threads PDO - 12 to 18 months
Aptos PCL Threads - 24 to 36 months
Predicting the longevity of a thread lift is tricky as they differ so much from one another. This means that it’s really important for you to ask your practitioner about the composite of the thread. My advice is to research the thread being used. Polycaprolactone (PCL) threads offer superior strength and longevity compared to Polydioxanone (PDO) threads, so that’s what I mainly use in my clinic. I also love Aptos threads as they’re coated with hyaluronic acid, which helps to speed up your recovery.
You can expect Aptos threads to last about 1-2 years before the ester bonds that hold them together are broken down by your body’s enzymes, metabolised and excreted by your liver. The variability in longevity is down to your particular circumstances, where the thread is placed and how much stress is placed on them.
Longevity:
Botox® injections (for wrinkle reduction) - 3 to 4 months
The breakdown of Botox® is dependent on enzymes that dissolve the molecule and break it down into its component amino acids. These are then either used to build other proteins or excreted by your kidneys. The botulinum toxin molecule is extremely delicate, that’s why it’s broken down so easily and doesn’t last as long as Thread Lift or Dermal Filler treatments.
Longevity:
Dermal Fillers for the lips - 6 to 12 months
Dermal Fillers for adding volume to the face - 12 to 18 months
The longevity of HA Dermal Fillers depends on the chemical bonds that hold them together and their frequency. Without these bonds, the filler chains would be removed from the body very quickly - in less than 24 hours! This means that dermal fillers with strong bonds and more cross-links last much longer.
However, if the filler is injected into a very vascular area such as the lips, the bonds will dissolve rapidly as this area can process it faster. As HA occurs naturally in the human body, once the bonds break down, it is processed and excreted just like your own supplies of HA.
Now you know a bit more about Thread Lift, Botox® and Dermal Filler treatments, you might be ready to book in for your online pre-assessment. However, if you have questions that you would like to ask first you can always contact us via our website or call our team on 07595221484.
You can also visit our website to learn more about all of these procedures and don't forget to make sure you’re following us on Facebook and Instagram to find out more about our team and the treatments we offer.
Fashions come, fashions go. I was a teenaged Goth in the 1980s and my hair was so stiff with hairspray that I should have been deemed a fire hazard. Every generation has their own style and we’ve since moved on from mullets and mohawks, with modern-day young people after big and bold in a different sense. Lip enhancements are in fashion and good lip fillers are essential in their quest for the perfect pout.
The hunt for attractive, full-bodied lips is strewn with pitfalls. Women are seeking bigger lips, but not grossly inflated pouts. Unfortunately, celebrities and influencers have normalised overfilled and misshapen lips and Generation Z have seized upon that look without question. Of course, it’s up to each generation to choose their own beauty norms, but lip fillers were never meant to be used this way! This misrepresentation of a great treatment means that you might not even know that you can achieve a natural-looking pout with good lip fillers.
Lip fillers are made from a gel-like substance called hyaluronic acid (HA). This forms naturally in our bodies, cushioning our cells, hydrating the skin and providing additional structure for our organs. The HA in our bodies is identical to that which is used in lip fillers. The only difference is that in fillers HA is stabilised, so that when it’s inserted into the chosen area it can do the job it’s meant to do, enhancing and beautifying by absorbing massive amounts of water.
It’s crucial that lip enhancements are carried out by expert practitioners to minimise complications and get the very best, natural-looking results.
I have been treating patients for years using HA fillers and have been trained in all the necessary skills. It can take years to learn how to place the filler so that it supports the lips and fills lip lines while remaining invisible to the naked eye, which means that good lip fillers should be the reserve of qualified and experienced experts.
A practitioner also needs a comprehensive knowledge of different lip filler products, so that they can choose the best one for a particular patient’s needs. Having the right concentration of HA is of primary importance, as it will affect the softness and smoothness of the result as well as the integration of HA into the tissues. The technology used to stabilise the HA will also impact the outcome.
Essentially, good lip fillers cannot be found on the cheap at non-specialist parlours. Comprehensive research, approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and safe delivery costs hike the prices up, meaning that quality stabilised products all come with a price tag. A bargain basement lip filler treatment probably won’t use premium products and is unlikely to give you the natural voluptuous lips you are looking for. When searching for good lip fillers, an expert is the only way.
The existence of badly applied fillers is no reason to be put off pursuing good lip fillers. Natural results are achievable with the right practitioner and the correct use of a premium product. Luckily, we can help.
Visit our website to view our full range of treatments or to book a consultation. Alternatively, get in touch with us at the No4 Clinic by calling 07595 221484, emailing [email protected] or filling out a contact form.
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The question of whether or not fillers for wrinkles are safe has been one that people have asked since dermal fillers first became a well-known feature in the world of aesthetics. I have no doubt that it ranks very highly on Google searches too!
When it comes to answering this question in the simplest terms, the answer is a resounding yes! There’s a lot of evidence to show that dermal fillers for wrinkles (and several other purposes) are a safe and effective treatment option. However, there’s much more to this question than you might think at first glance. Even the safest treatment can become problematic in the wrong hands.
It is my belief that the wrong practitioner performing any kind of injectable treatment, such as dermal fillers for wrinkles, cannot be trusted. When it comes to choosing a clinic and practitioner you can trust, you may have to do some snooping. Based on a clinic’s Instagram or website, you should be able to quickly ascertain what qualifications they hold. Sadly, when it comes to some places, even Sherlock Holmes would be at a loss. However, if you can find what you’re looking for, you should soon be able to look a practitioner up on a professional database. Anyone with qualifications, whether they’re a doctor, nurse or dentist, should be on a professional register, as this holds them accountable for the treatment they provide.
The next step is to dig a little deeper. In order for someone to be able to provide fillers for wrinkles safely, they should have a Level 7 qualification, or an equivalent Master’s degree. This level of practical training ensures that an individual has the knowledge they need in order to perform dermal fillers for wrinkles safely. These qualifications take years to obtain, but they provide practitioners with invaluable knowledge.
The last thing to check is the premises in which you’ll be treated. Anyone who claims to be a practitioner, but continues to operate from a location that is primarily meant for another purpose is unlikely to be legitimate. In my professional opinion, these places will not meet your treatment needs. Aesthetic procedures, whether we’re discussing fillers for wrinkles or chemical face peels, need to be performed in safe and clean conditions. Many locations simply don’t meet the standards necessary, which other practices pride themselves on.
If you’re based in Scotland, you can check the Healthcare Improvement Scotland website (HIS) prior to booking an appointment. HIS’ standards are incredibly high and all registered clinics have to undergo a thorough, independent inspection process before they can become part of their register. If you’re wondering whether or not my own clinic is registered, I’m pleased to say that it is! Click here to read the details of our inspection. See, I’ve made it a little bit easier for you to become an aesthetic detective too! After all, it’s only fair that I practice what I preach!
My staff and I value nothing more than safe, reliable treatments that are guaranteed to give our patients the results they deserve. When you’re considering dermal fillers for wrinkles, fine lines or simply to enhance your natural features, I invite you to visit me and my wonderful team.
When you choose my clinic, you can be sure that my staff and I have the qualifications, skills and knowledge necessary to ensure you feel happier and more confident in your skin. My true passion is helping my patients and you could be one of them!
You can contact me, or a member of my team, by filling out a form on our website, calling us on 07595221484 or emailing [email protected] today.
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See you soon!
