A New Year Brings a New Facial Filler

		Otolaryngology News Archive Featured in the Media JeffNEWS Center for Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery

The FDA recently approved Radiesse for the long-lasting correction of moderate to severe facial wrinkles and folds. The product has been used by the Head and Neck Surgeons at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital since 2002 to help patients with vocal fold paralysis.  By augmenting the vocal fold, speech and voice deficits improve.

“We found,” says Ryan Heffelfinger, M.D., a facial plastic surgeon in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, “that the characteristics of Radiesse also worked for filling facial wrinkles.” Today, as a result of the FDA approval, Dr. Heffelfinger and his colleagues can offer the cosmetic dermal filler to patients who want a new look.

“The advantages of this product are that it is an immediate volumizer, that it stimulates the body to produce new collagen over time, and that the effects seem to be longer lasting than current dermal fillers,” Dr. Heffelfinger says.  Radiesse also received a second FDA approval for the correction of facial fat loss (lipoatrophy) in people with HIV. 

Patients receive a topical anesthetic and nerve block--and they see the results almost instantly. A patient can come in on a lunch hour and leave with a fresh and younger look.

For information or to make an appointment with a Jefferson Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, call 1-800 JEFF-NOW.