Restylane® Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to have a skin test?
No
Are there any side effects?
The rate of reactions to Restylane is very low. However, after the treatment, some common injection-related reactions may occur, such as swelling, redness, pain, itching, discoloration, and tenderness at the injection site. These typically resolve spontaneously within a few days after injection into the skin and within a week after the injection into the lips. Other types of reactions are very rare, but about 1 in 2000 treated patients have experienced localized reactions thought to be of a hypersensitive nature. These have usually consisted of swelling at the injection site, sometimes affecting the surrounding tissues. Redness, tenderness, and rarely acne-like formations have also been reported. These reactions have either started a few days after the injection or after a delay of 2 – 4 weeks and have generally been described as mild to moderate and self-limiting with an average duration of two weeks. This text does not contain all the information known about these products. For more information, please consult with your practitioner.
Why do the lips sometimes become very swollen immediately after a Restylane treatment?
The cause of this is not yet known, but there is no reason to believe that this is an immunological reaction. Normally, the swelling is gone within a week after injection into the lips.
Can Restylane be used if I have undergone laser treatment or chemical peeling?
If you have recently had some other kind of facial treatment, you are recommended to wait until the treated area is totally healed and the skin has normalized (usually 4 – 6 weeks) before you undergo a Restylane treatment.
Can patients with allergies of different kinds be more sensitive to Restylane?
So far, no connection between patients with allergies and patients that report a reaction to Restylane has been established.
How long does the effect of a Restylane treatment last?
The length of time the effect of a Restylane treatment lasts is very individual and depends on many factors, such as the structure of your skin, lifestyle, age, the degree of perfection demanded, and the injection technique of the practitioner. Experience indicates that touch-up and follow-up treatments will add to the duration. Most people choose to have a new treatment within a year after the treatment of wrinkles and folds and within six months after a lip enhancement.
Does Restylane get stiffer in cold weather? What happens in the sun?
You should not expose the treated area to intense heat (e.g. in a solarium or by sunbathing) or extreme cold for the first few days after the treatment in order to avoid the risk of inflammation as the area has been disturbed. However, once Restylane has integrated into the body, it will adjust to your normal body temperature.
How will my skin look without follow-up treatments?
The correction will gradually disappear until your skin looks like it did before the treatment. Follow-up injections will help you maintain your correction.
What are the contents of Restylane?
Restylane consists of 20 mg/ml of stabilized hyaluronic acid and physiological sodium chloride solution with a pH of 7. All Restylane products are clear, transparent, and viscous gels. The only difference between the products is the size of the gel particles. In contrast to other similar products, the hyaluronic acid in Restylane is not produced from animals. This means that there is no risk of disease being transmitted or allergic reactions being elicited if you are sensitive to common foods, such as beef, chicken, and eggs.
What is hyaluronic acid?
Hyaluronic acid is a natural substance that is found throughout your body. It gives volume to the skin, lubricates the joints, and gives the eyes their shape. The hyaluronic acid in Restylane is stabilized for a long duration and is not of animal or human origin.
How was Restylane developed?
After many years of research, Dr. Bengt Ågerup and the company Q-Med in Uppsala, Sweden succeeded in developing a way of using a non-animal, stabilized hyaluronic acid to replace the loss of volume in the skin. The first application, Restylane, was launched in 1996. Before this, the only collagen made from cowhide and hyaluronic acid made from rooster combs had been available.