By Dr. TRACY MOUNTFORD, MBBS MBCAM
Dermal fillers are a popular option for patients who want to gain beautifully airbrushed skin with minimal intervention. This deeply hydrating treatment lifts and recontours the face while softening skin texture and restoring lost volume.
Dr Tracy Mountford explained in her recent Podcast with renowned broadcaster Emma Gunavardhana that fillers are often misunderstood, and sometimes feared. The numerous negative media stories of poorly performed treatments can make people worry about the prospect of fillers giving them an exaggerated or overdone look. However, Dr Mountford encourages us all to rethink fillers by focusing on their transformational benefits:
“Nature is a wondrous thing; the balance of different facial features. We can enhance by injecting fillers in key areas of the face. We can alter contours, we can beautify and we can enhance someone really subtly, and these subtleties are the key to making truly amazing differences.”
Embracing fillers for the first time
The Cosmetic Skin Clinic recently emphasised these points to actress, singer and treatment ‘newbie’ Dee Anderson. As the daughter of Thunderbirds creators Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and a celebrated performer, she’s been used to growing up in the spotlight and caring about the quality of her appearance.
She was apprehensive about using dermal fillers to enhance her looks. After seeking an initial consultation with our experienced cosmetic nurse Sylvia Chrzanowska, she decided to put her faith in our clinic and take the plunge.
Dee’s first-time filler treatment explained
Sylvia closely listened to Dee’s aesthetic goals before coming up with a holistic plan to rejuvenate her entire face. She began with the upper face.
Upper face fillers
Dee explained to us that her main area of concern was her lower face, around the chin and jawline area. The strategy we adopted was to treat the upper half of the face first, focusing on the cheeks, temples and lateral cheeks. In Dr Mountford’s words, these areas act as structural “coathangers” to give the overall face a smoothly contoured shape and mid-face lift while also helping to enhance the lower face.
Lower face fillers
The second part of Dee’s treatment directly targeted the chin and jawline to minimise the sagging and drooping effects of age, while generating a natural lift to the lower face and upper neck. Sylvia explains the reasons for this approach:
“A gradual loss of collagen and elastin can cause our skin to lose its firmness, resulting in creases and folds, particularly on the lower face. By injecting hyaluronic acid fillers strategically into this area, lost volume is restored, and a natural lift is generated.”
Immediate results
By combining dermal fillers in both the upper and lower face, we could help Dee to achieve a balanced result. Treating the whole face with fillers rather than just parts of it achieved a more harmonious and natural look. The video below shows Dee’s reaction to this and her thoughts on being a filler ‘first-timer.’
No pain, no downtime
As a first-timer, Dee had her reservations. But the fantastic results and comfortable process made her shift her original thinking. Dee explained:
“Because I am a first-timer, I was a little apprehensive and nervous. I thought it would be really painful and uncomfortable, but it wasn’t! It was really easy, I hardly felt anything, and I’m absolutely thrilled. It has totally changed the way I feel. Already I can see a huge difference.”
The fact that she could leave the clinic with no bruising, swelling or downtime was a definite win for her:
“I was worried because I’m recording a television show in the morning, and I thought: ‘Oh my goodness, I hope I don’t bruise.’ But I can do it! And nobody would notice. They’ll just think I look amazing.”
Minimal intervention, maximum impact
Explaining the transformational impact of the treatment, she noted how the subtle filler tweak had a big result:
“Although it’s subtle, I’m looking now and thinking ‘Oh my, who is this young person?’ I feel more confident, and people are commenting saying: ‘you look fantastic!’ It’s been the most amazing experience and I would definitely have it again.”
The subtle but impactful changes have given Dee an “unbelievable” feeling. Dr Mountford explains that the key to getting this treatment right is taking incremental steps to achieve an optimal outcome – something that’s so central to the guiding ethos of The Cosmetic Skin Clinic:
“The art of really good aesthetic medicine in our opinion” is to perform “subtleties that have maximum impact,” and fillers will achieve this every time in experienced hands. When executed well, the results will always impress.
To find out more about our dermal filler treatments or other treatments that we offer, call our London clinic on 0203 319 3637 or our Buckinghamshire clinic on 01753 646 660. Alternatively, fill out our enquiry form here.