Galderma & SHARP
The eyes may be the windows to the soul, but the chin is the foundation for the whole face and has a pronounced impact on your overall appearance, says Dr. Andreas Nikolis, board-certified plastic surgeon and national medical director of Victoria Park Medispas, based in Montreal.
“It really is one of those regions on the face that can change somebody’s appearance significantly,” adds Nikolis. “You can’t really change your forehead and you can modify volume in the middle part of your face, but by augmenting the chin, you can tighten the jawline, you can improve the projection, and you can create better harmony.”
If a patient is unhappy with the lower third of their face, wants a more rugged-looking jawline, or feels that their nose is too strong for their face, the most common way for a plastic surgeon to rebalance proportions previously was with a chin implant — a procedure requiring surgery and a lengthy recovery period. If a patient wished to remove the implant, or the shape of their face changed, additional surgery and recovery may be required. But Restylane SHAYPE, a new hyaluronic acid injectable designed for augmenting the chin region, offers a less invasive alternative that can easily be targeted to address facial shape, profile, and symmetry as the face changes over time.
“This is a new dermal filler that was created based on an unmet need,” Nikolis says, explaining how he and other industry professionals asked Switzerland-based dermatology company Galderma to create a new, firmer kind of injectable gel to meet a demand from their patients for chin augmentation. “If you have a soft gel, you cannot project; your tissues will be stronger than the gel,” Nikolis says, explaining how Restylane SHAYPE works by mimicking the feel of bone. “But if you have a strong gel you can push the tissues forward and you can sculpt somebody’s chin.”
Following extensive development and testing, Restylane SHAYPE recently received approval from Health Canada for temporary augmentation of the chin region, which makes Canada the first country to launch the innovation. “It’s a very long, rigorous process to bring a filler to market, and there are many levels of testing that these products go through,” assures Nikolis. First are lab tests, which address the strength of the product and how it breaks down over time. These are followed by a clinical phase of testing. “The product undergoes rigorous clinical trials where you follow the patients for a significant period of time,” Nikolis says. “You evaluate the clinical outcomes, any complications, and patient satisfaction. Then somebody who’s not involved with the clinical research comes in and looks at the outcomes and scores them, it’s very objective.”
Nikolis sees Restylane SHAYPE as an appealing new option for treating patients who come to him seeking enhancements to their chins, both because of its versatility and precision. “It mimics bone where you place it, and it’s not going to move around,” he says. Whether a patient wants a narrower chin or a wider one, a skilled practitioner can create the appropriate amount of projection to balance their face with a few carefully placed injections. And, when the injection begins to break down — after approximately a year — patients can return for a top-up, and the filler can be adjusted as needed. This ability to fine-tune the treatment over time is why Nikolis describes Restylane SHAYPE as a “paintbrush” that he can use to give patients the face shapes and profiles they have always wanted. “It’s sculpting through the eye of a needle,” he says. “That’s how precise it is.”
Learn more about Restylane® ShaypeTM.
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