Artefill
Artefill is a soft tissue filler made of tiny spheres made of polymethylmethacrylate or PMMA. These spheres are suspended in bovine (cow) collagen to facilitate the delivery the PMMA beads to the deeper soft tissues of your skin. Artefill is the only “permanent” soft tissue filler approved for this use in the United States. Like its hyaluronic counterparts JUVÉDERM and Restylane, Artefill is made containing the local anesthetic lidocaine. Contact our San Diego practice to schedule your Artefill injection appointment with Dr. Marin.
How Does Artefill Work?
Artefill is injected into the soft tissues beneath a wrinkle or fold to add volume or support to aging tissues. The PMMA spheres remain after your body gradually degrades the bovine collagen over the first few weeks. The PMMA spheres in the Artefill stimulate your body to create more of your own collagen from a local inflammatory reaction to the spheres. Once your body has created this collagen, the correction beneath the wrinkle is permanent since your body will not react to its own tissues. The final resulting combination is roughly 80% collagen and 20% PMMA spheres.
Since the bovine collagen is the “carrier” to deliver the PMMA spheres, there can be rare allergic reactions to this component of the Artefill. As a result, our San Diego Artefill patients must undergo “allergy” testing to bovine collagen before being cleared to receive the Artefill. This must take place four weeks prior to the injection, by injecting a small amount of bovine collagen into the forearm and watching for a local reaction.
Who is a Candidate for Artefill?
Both men and women of almost any age are candidates for Artefill injections. Since this product is “permanent” meaning that we have good information that it lasts at least five years, I always want to try and use a product that is not permanent first. This allows you to determine if you truly like the result with little consequence, before making the leap to a more long lasting approach. We can determine the amount of Artefill needed with the non-permanent option such as JUVÉDERM or Restylane without any long-term consequences.
Side Effects with Artefill
Artefill side effects are rare and the product is very well tolerated. When side effects occur, they are commonly redness and tenderness at the injection site, limited bruising, lumps or firmness in or around the treatment area. Nearly all of these are self-limiting and will improve with time. With Artefill, the product is considered permanent and thus we do not “over-correct” areas, but approach our final outcome gradually to not “over-do” a particular area.
San Diego Artefill Appointments
Contact our San Diego office to schedule an Artefill appointment with Dr. Marin.
Call 858.356.5187 or complete this form and someone from our office will get back to you.
Marin Aesthetics
Dr. Vince Marin
1431 Camino Del Mar
San Diego, CA 92014
Phone: 858.356.5187
Toll Free: 888.638.9894
Fax: 858.551.9071
Dr. Marin provides plastic surgery services to the entire San Diego County community.
