My Love Affair with Restylane Vital

In our medispa businesses, we all know and can't deny the following equation: Happy Patient = Happy Doctor

This is why your medispa needs to add skinboosters to its range of injectable treatments.

What are skinboosters?

Most importantly, skinboosters are not dermal fillers. They are "an injectable moisturiser" which improve the skin's quality by boosting hydration in the skin, they increase smoothness, elasticity and firmness. They are a hyaluronic acid injectable treatment, which have been proven to improve skin quality.

My clinic's experience with skinboosters:

We introduced Restylane Vital at our Sydney clinic several years ago after it was approved in Australia. It was a difficult start. The original protocol involved multiple treatment sessions (typically 3) using needles. This created too much downtime and bruising, so patient satisfaction wasn't high. We improved the treatment regime, by performing the full treatment in one session, using a cannula. Bruising and downtime were reduced, and patient satisfaction soared.

My clinic's specialty is injectables, so we do a high volume of dermal fillers. Our figures reveal the growth of skinboosters. In the last year, for every 6mls of hyaluronic acid dermal filler we injected, we injected 1ml of Restylane Vital.

The feedback from patients is that they get compliments about their skin. Injectors know how much that can reinforce a new behaviour.

We have minimal experience with other brands of skinboosters. The Juvederm brand skinbooster is not available in Australia yet.

They key with skinboosters is to choose the right patients. They will love the results and come back for more every 6-12 months.

The right patients for skinboosters

• Those into the "natural look" who want a subtle improvement in their skin and  don't want to change the general look of their facial anatomy
• The skin obsessed
• Those higher on the Fitzpatrick scale who want general skin improvement but don't want the risk of PIH (post imflammatory hyperpigmentation) which is associated with lasers and other skin treatments
• Patients with acne scarring or photodamage
• Patients who you have made structurally perfect with dermal fillers who come into your office and want more improvement
• The young/young at heart who are scared of or don't need or feel ready for dermal fillers
• The girl/guy who has everything:)
• Those with or motivated to prevent accordion lines (lower cheek smile lines) and barcodes (smoker's lines)
• Those wanting neck, decolletage and hand skin improvement.

The wrong patients for skinboosters

• I like to call them the "glass half empties", that is, their default position is unhappy, and they will never see their glass (or wrinkles for that matter) as half full.... Actually I could make a case to sack all of these types of patients from your practice, but that subject deserves its own post.
• Those who are less sensitive to aesthetics eg if you put 1ml of dermal filler in their lips, they won't see the difference. Skinbooster results are subtle so these patients are not ideal.
• Those who need and want obvious structural change in their face eg volumising or wrinkle filling. Skinboosters need to be looked at as icing on the cake in this circumstance. That is, you need to bake the structural cake first.

Skinboosters Revenue

Skinboosters are very affordable for the patient, which makes it attractive to them. Often multiple syringes are wanted and required, which improves the revenue for the doctor. The satisfaction rate and the retention rate for the procedure is high. The other good news for the injector is that the "blanket coverage" style of injecting required for skinboosters is less taxing, unlike the "precision injecting" which is required for the treatment of wrinkles and volume.

My technique

We perform a single injecting session using 3 mls of Restylane Vital in the mid and lower face. We use cannula or needles, whichever the patient prefers. If the forehead is included, an extra 1ml will be required.

Repeat this procedure every 6-12  months or sooner if requested by the patient.

Skinboosters around the World

Restylane Skinboosters continue to grow around the world. The product is becoming available in an increasing number of countries each year. Particular areas of growth at the moment are Latin America and Asian countires. Skinboosters aren't available as yet in the US, but American injectors can look forward to adding an innovative tool to their toolkits when skinboosters become FDA aproved.