Question: What type of injectable filler is the longest lasting for diminishing forehead wrinkles? Does this filler have any complications associated with it?
Answer: In the far majority of my patients with forehead wrinkles, I will recommend Botox as my treatment of choice. That is because these lines in the forehead are typically there simply because the patient overuses this muscle trying to raise the brows repeatedly creating these horizontal forehead wrinkles. By relaxing the muscle with Botox, the wrinkles simply vanish. Fillers themselves can be placed in these wrinkles, but I typically reserve this only for patients with extremely deep folds and even then we improve them to very small folds using the filler material. There are a variety of fillers that could theoretically be used for this purpose, but I would tend to stick with either hyaluronic acid fillers like Restylane or Juvederm or, in select cases, I may use some Radiesse. All of these fillers last somewhere between nine and eighteen months and Botox will last anywhere from three to six months in most patients. In the big picture, I want to stress the importance of having the best treatment performed as opposed to having the longest lasting treatment performed since ultimately what we want to do is look our best and if the best treatment does not last as long, hopefully it is less expensive than a longer lasting treatment and ultimately you are still better off getting the best look with frequent retreatments as opposed to getting a less effective appearance but one that lasts longer.