While skin rejuvenation treatments and dermal fillers won't completely erase scars, they can dramatically improve their appearance, making them virtually unnoticeable as you’ll see in my sister, Amanda’s, story below.
Amanda is a Kindergarten school teacher and lives near the beach in Auckland, New Zealand. She regularly cycles the coastal road to work and one afternoon, on her way home she was the victim of a hit and run. Luckily she was found by a passerby who called the emergency services. She was unconscious and her face had taken the full impact. It’s estimated she had been dragged along on gravel for up to 10 metres. She was rushed to hospital where she was admitted to the trauma/resus department.
Amanda in hospital after the accident
Amanda 3 months after I treated her
Amanda had a broken nose and teeth and her injuries went from the top of her left eyebrow and across her nose and main facial artery. A flap of skin was hanging open on her cheek, her tongue, cheeks and lips were split and the skin on her chin across to her lower jaw was hanging off. The hospital stitched her up very quickly, it was a neat job but there was no time for constructive work to be done. That will all happen in a year or so’s time once the scar tissue has settled down.
With the approval of her consultant, I invited Amanda to come and stay with me in England to have some rejuvenation and constructive treatments. I had 2 weeks to work my magic!
To prepare the skin for the fillers I started with a medium chemical peel to help lighten the scar tissue and rejuvenate the surface of the skin, removing dead skin cells.
This was followed by a microneedling treatment. Microneedling involves pricking the skin with tiny sterilized needles. It causes your body to make more collagen and elastin, which promotes scarless healing and natural collagen production to improve the appearance of scars, acne scarring, stretch marks, wrinkles and pigmentation. I also added a microneedling serum.
Next, I administered a sprinkling of Botox to the upper part of her frown lines and forehead and around the crows feet to lift and balance and then she was ready for Profhilo. These skin boosters and bio-remodelers penetrate deep into the dermal layers and improve the skin’s laxity, quality and tone. They also improve the texture and appearance of the skin. Skin boosters stimulate collagen and elastin production giving a hydration boost that improves elasticity and evens out skin tone resulting in overall lift and radiance.
After I’d laid the groundwork with the preparation treatments, I was able to begin work with dermal fillers to create structure and lifts. Face and lip fillers are natural hyaluronic gel-like substances that are injected into the dermal layer to restore lost volume, smooth out lines and soften creases, enhancing facial contours and adding volume to areas such as lips and cheeks. Dermal fillers help to restore and rejuvenate your appearance.
The pictures below show the work I did over a 2 week period, except for the last 3 images which Amanda sent me from New Zealand, 4 weeks after treatment. She will continue to see an improvement in the results over the next few months.
In October the dentist will start working on Amanda’s implants. This will help to even up the lip tissue and add a bit of lift and volume to her top lip.
Dermal fillers can be an effective way of dealing with many indented scars, including those from acne, chicken pox, injuries, surgery and depressed areas of the skin caused by burns. Filler is injected into the site of the scar to push up the skin at the base of the scar, the result is it’s more flush with the surface of your skin. The hyaluronic acid in dermal fillers also has a hydrating effect, which helps to improve the overall tone and texture of the skin.
Over a period of time, dermal fillers can permanently improve the appearance of scars. They help break up the scar tissue and the collagen-boosting properties of hyaluronic acid naturally repair the area. While this will never get rid of the scar entirely, it can mean that over time less filler and less frequent treatments are required to maintain the improved appearance.
Before I started treatment
Before I started treatment
Before I started treatment
Anaesthetic cream applied ready to start
Anaesthetic cream applied ready to start
Anaesthetic cream applied ready to start
Two weeks after treatment
Two weeks after treatment
Two weeks after treatment
Two weeks after treatment
Two weeks after treatment
Two weeks after treatment
One month after treatment
One month after treatment
One month after treatment
Three months after treatment
Three months after treatment
Three months after treatment
“I had a broken nose, nerve damage and multiple stitches on my eyebrow, nose, lips and chin. Over time, as my injuries healed, it was more noticeable that one side of my face has drooped from the nerve damage and my skin was dull and dehydrated from the medications.
I’m a big woose, but Sammy was so professional, attentive and patient with me which put me at ease before and during every treatment.
I was so impressed with the results. I felt normal again. Each time I looked in the mirror I saw my face was more even, my skin had new life, was radiant and more youthful and my confidence started to grow.
I had so many compliments about how well I looked from my husband, children, family and friends. It’s just over a year since the accident and 9 months since my treatments and I’m still impressed with how much better I look and feel.”
— Mandy