Belatero, other fillers and puffy bags or “cords” under the eyes.
Okay ……..maybe I wasn’t clear enough about this but…….any filler can cause puffy bags or “cords” under the eyes, not just Belotero!
That puffiness or cord effect has to do with 3 things:
- Your own soft tissue around the eye area, specifically things like how much fat pad do you have, how is the fat distributed, the thickness of the dermis, your genetic bone structure there, and the amount of elasticity remaining in the skin as we age;
- The particular placement of the filler i.e. …was it placed in the correct plane (deep vs. superficial) for that filler, was the correct amount put in the right places. You get the idea.
- And how hydrophilic (means how much water it attracts) the filler is intrinsically. For example, Juvederm is very hydrophilic while Restylane slightly less so. You don’t want hydrophilic around the eyes because fluid there tends to fluctuate a lot anyway from morning to night. Generally you don’t want to make that more so.
It’s sadly not as simple as just saying to avoid one product. This is why I say ….experts only please around the eye area. It’s difficult to do well sometimes, even for very experienced doctors. Also, working around the eye area (FDA off-label) can be dangerous if your injector is unskilled. More to learn…
Hope this helps, Dr. I