The Natural Filler – PRT
Posted: Monday 24 May 2010 04:53pm
Kylie, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are said to love a revolutionary treatment that uses a person’s own blood platelets to smooth skin and tighten sagging.
You’ve heard of fat transfer treatments, which take unwanted fat from love handles or stomachs to plump up wrinkles and sagging skin. Now patients are being injected with their own plasma to tone their face and certain body parts.
According to Dr Herbert Hooi, of the International Centre for Cosmetic Medicine, Sydney, this non-surgical treatment involves the collection of blood from the patient (around 10ml per test tube), which is then spun in a centrifuge for eight minutes separating the cells in the blood into white and red blood cells and platelets.
“The platelets are then injected back into the person’s skin to stimulate new collagen growth,” says Dr Hooi.
“It’s particularly good for rejuvenating thinning skin, often around the eyes, cheeks, jawline, decolletage and also crepey necks and the backs of hands.”
The treatment is said to be favoured by people who have an aversion to injecting fillers of “foreign substances” into their face, and is popular with people who have been ill, wanting a natural anti-ageing approach, as although the treatment uses your own blood, you need to ensure you have a high enough platelet count to allow the treatment to commence.
While the treatment is suitable for those aged 30 to 80 years, it’s probably best for non-smokers in their 30s to 50s.
According to Dr Hooi, it is important to use anaesthetic cream prior to injecting, as the treatment “can be quite painful” and he says bruising is quite common for up to two weeks afterwards. Swelling can last two to three days.
The treatment takes 45 to 60 minutes, with two to three treatments recommended, four weeks apart. Maintenance treatments should be done every year or so.
The cost is around $1,200 for the full face.
“As this is a natural treatment, it is very unlikely you will ever look overdone,” says Dr Hooi.
FURTHER READING:
> A Guide to Fillers