The newest facial injectable filler to enter the commercial cosmetic marketplace is Artefill, a semi-permanent to permanent in-office treatment for deep facial lines. This is primarily intended for the nasolabial fold area, often times called the cheek-lip groove or fold. It is the result of cheek tissue descending with age, falling over the fixed upper lip. (which fortunately does not fall much with age!)
ArteFill falls into my categorization of the particulated filler group, which is in contrast to much of what the public knows about injectable fillers, such as Restlane or JuveDerm , which are the hyaluron or non-particulated group. Like the other current particulated injectable filler Radiesse, Artefill also contains beads (or particles) and a solution into which it is suspended so it will flow through a small needle. In simplicity, ArteFill contains small plastic beads in a collagen solution which is derived from cows. This collagen solution results in its only real drawback to other injectable fillers in that it requires a skin test prior to treatment to determine if you have an obvious reaction to the animal collagen. Short of that, ArteFill does have several advantages over any of the non-particuled fillers for the nasolabial fold area.
First, ArteFill is one of the most extensively studied of the injectable fillers from the perspective of long-term patient follow-up and evaluation of its constituent filler materials. It is the only one of all of the fillers that can truly document years of sustainable results. Secondly, calling it a ‘permanent’ filler is a bit of a stretch (no filler can be truly called permanent when you are treating an aging issue), but it is true that the particles which are injected never go away. But the collagen solution which carries them through the needle does go away, and since that makes up about 80% of what is injected, the initial results from one injection are not ‘permanent’. Understanding this then allows you to eventually see where the concept of ‘permanent’ comes from and how to get there. If one undergoes a series of ArteFill injections over a 3 to 6 month period, it is possible to build up to a result that will last for years. Each injection session will add another permanent layer of beads, which when done enough times, will create a new tissue layer that will not go away. lastly, this is certainly a different approach that any of the other types of injectable fillers. More injection sessions will be needed up front but with the objective of building to a permanent layer, rather than just re-injecting when it has all gone away as with most other facial fillers.
ArteFill offers a novel approach to the ubiquitous and difficult nasolabial fold area (parentheses), If you are willing to spend more money up front and go through a series of closely-spaced injection sessions, this is likely a better long-term value as an injectable facial filler.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana