A Complete Guide To Cheek Fillers In Singapore
And the cheeks play an important role in giving our faces balance and proportion. However, not all of us are born with a pair of high cheekbones. Plus, with ageing and other environmental causes, your cheek balance can be thrown off.
As we age, we lose volume in our cheeks and they begin to sag. A flat pair of cheeks can make a person look tired and older than they actually are. This is how cheek fillers can help. Cheek fillers can be done to add prominence to the cheek bones and balance out your facial proportions.
But most importantly, cheek fillers must be performed by a trained doctor to avoid overfilling and ending up with pillow cheeks like those seen on celebrity tabloids.
Read on to find out more about cheek fillers in Singapore.
What Are Cheek Fillers?
Cheek fillers are simply gel-like substances that are injected into the upper cheeks by a doctor with the goal of improving the patient’s facial proportion and attractiveness.
What Is The Best Filler For The Cheeks?
While technically there isn’t one “best” filler for the cheeks, there are fillers that are more suitable than the others.
Here are a number of cheek filler brands and types in Singapore:
- Juvéderm® VOLUMA
- Restylane® Lyft
- Belotero© Volume
At SL Aesthetic Clinic, we prefer to use the Juvéderm® VOLUMA filler. It is an FDA-approved hyaluronic acid cheek filler that can last up to 18 months.
Hyaluronic acid is a substance found naturally in your body. As you age, this substance degrades, which leads to loss of facial volume and hence, sagging in the cheeks. Juvéderm® VOLUMA can be injected into your cheekbone area to lift the mid face and provide more symmetry and definition.
How Much Filler Do You Need For The Cheeks?
On average, upwards of 1ml of filler.
The exact amount of filler will depend on the extent of the lift and volume the cheeks require.
At SL Aesthetic Clinic, we believe in the “less is more” approach, and prefer to gradually work our way up. This helps patients avoid the infamous “pillow cheeks”.
How Long Do Cheek Fillers Last?
Up to 18 months with Juvéderm® VOLUMA. We also do find results lasting longer for some patients, of up to 2 years or so.
How Much Does It Cost For Cheek Fillers?
Cheek filler is priced from $700 per ml.
How Are Cheek Fillers Performed?
After you’ve been assessed by the doctor to be a suitable candidate, the doctor may make markings on the treatment area. This is a plan to guide the doctor.
The area may be numbed beforehand, but typically it is not required for cheek fillers. Plus, the fillers also contain lidocaine, an anaesthetic. This makes the treatment process more comfortable for you as well.
Next, the doctor will perform the cheek filler treatment in 1 to 2 injection points.
Cheek filler is injected close to the top of the cheek bone, near the orbital area. This builds on existing bone structure and uses less filler. If injected too low or below the cheek bones, the doctor may end up using too much filler and you may end up with overfilled pillow cheeks.
Cheek filler is also injected in the front of the face. Filler can be used to add volume and lift to the midface for “apple” cheeks, and at the widest corner of the front-facing cheekbone to give it prominence and definition. Injecting fillers beyond this point (too laterally) should be avoided to not widen the face.
Do Cheek Fillers Hurt?
No. Cheek filler treatments are well-tolerated by most patients. Any discomfort can be mitigated with topical numbing cream. Plus, the filler itself contains lidocaine, an anaesthetic, which helps improve the entire treatment process as well.
FAQ
The level of discomfort experienced during filler injections varies among individuals, but most find the procedure to be relatively tolerable. We minimise pain and ensure a more comfortable experience by using:
- Numbing cream: Prior to the injection, a topical numbing cream is applied to the treatment area.
- Vibration device: This distracts patients from any sensation of pain.
- Fillers that come with local anaesthesia: The local anaesthetic numbs the treatment area from the inside out as the filler is injected.
- Cannula Technique: In certain areas of the face, we may use a blunt-tipped cannula instead of a traditional needle. The cannula technique can reduce pain, bruising, and swelling as it tends to cause less trauma to the tissue compared to a sharp needle. This method may be useful for areas like the cheeks and lips.
You can discuss any concerns about pain with us, so that we can tailor our treatment approach to best suit your needs and ensure a more pleasant experience.
Cheek fillers are considered safe, and the cheeks themselves are a relatively low-risk area.
Plus, cheek fillers at SL Aesthetic Clinic are made of Hyaluronic Acid (HA), which is a safe substance found naturally in your body. It is reversible, and can be dissolved safely.
Side effects, if any, are generally related to injection treatments such as bruising, redness, and swelling, which are also temporary.
Side effects are typically those associated with injections, such as redness of the treatment area, bruising, and swelling. These are temporary and will dissipate in a matter of a few hours or days.
Other risks are either rare or theoretical in nature, such as:
- Allergic reaction to the filler – very unlikely to occur as hyaluronic acid is a substance that our body also produces.
- Vascular occlusion or blockage of blood vessels – unlikely as the area of treatment as no major facial artery.
- Development of lumpiness with fillers – there is a possibility of occurrence and varies by the individual. However, it is completely reversible.
- Movement or migration of the filler – minimised with careful handling of the area, typically only required within the first 2 days of treatment.
We recommend that patients avoid alcohol for the day of treatment itself. Strenuous exercise should also be avoided for at least 7 days after treatment.
We discourage patients from massaging or excessively touching the treatment area for at least 2 days after treatment.
This applies only on the very night of treatment. We recommend that you should avoid sleeping on your side. This can be done by placing two pillows next to your head, with your head resting on a pillow in the middle.
In addition, we recommend that patients sleep slightly elevated that night. This can be done by sleeping on 2 pillows.
Any healthy adult looking to improve your overall facial aesthetic and contours, all without the downtime, risks, and complications that surgery entails.
It is suitable for patients who want to see some degree of cheek augmentation, but are not ready for surgery, or for those who want to see the results of an augmented cheek before committing to plastic surgery.
Yes! Often, cheek fillers are accompanied with other filler treatments in other areas to achieve a more holistically aesthetic look. This is because the cheeks are usually not the only issue the face needs help with.
For example, if you have hollow temples and eyes, or deep nasolabial folds, having cheek fillers done may exacerbate the hollowness of your temples and eyes or the deepness of your nasolabial folds. This is why fillers may also be used to provide a holistically pleasant result to the entire face, not just the cheeks.
The following circumstances may prove unsuitable for cheek fillers:
- Unrealistic expectations.
- Drastic improvements similar to plastic surgery.
- Known allergy to any component of the filler, including lidocaine.
- Susceptibility to scarring.
- Bleeding disorders.
- Active inflammation on the site of treatment.
- Pregnant or nursing.
We encounter many customers who dislike the fillers they inject at other aesthetic clinics or other countries, but very few from our clinic.
The most commonly injected type of fillers is hyaluronic acid based fillers. Should you not like the result of your filler treatment, a medication called hyalase can be injected to dissolve the hyaluronic acid fillers. The fillers will be gone within a day of hyalase injection.
Fillers are not harmful to our health, even in the long run.
Fillers are commonly made up of hyaluronic acid which is a naturally occurring substance in human skin. So, it is not harmful to us. The filler only stays at the site of injection and integrates well with skin, replacing lost collagen and providing hydration and support from within.
The next time you need filler injections after your first is at least 1 year later, and we will not look worse if we choose to stop.
For best results, we recommend doing it regularly when you start to notice the effect of the fillers diminishing.
Addiction refers to our inability to resist things which are harmful to us such as alcohol and smoking. Filler treatments are not addictive because we can choose to stop treatments at any time. People look forward to regular filler treatments because it makes us look our best.
In fact, we can choose to stop filler treatments at any time. So we will not be addicted because it is not harmful for our health, but in fact, fillers can help us look our best without going for surgery.
Looking fake and unnatural is a valid concern, but our doctors aim to only replace the volume you have lost from ageing so that you will look natural but noticeably fresher.
Fillers injection is an art and no two faces are the same. When our doctors use fillers to sculpt your face, they are improving the beauty ratio of your face so that you look more ideal.
You will only look fake if our doctors go beyond what is ideal, and this does not happen at SL Clinic.
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