Happy Birthday, Juvederm. This month Juvederm celebrates its tenth birthday, and it is incredible to think about how ubiquitous the product’s name is worldwide. “A little Botox and ‘Juvy’” my patient requests earlier today at my practice in Manhattan. “’Juvy,’ is that what everyone’s calling ‘Juvederm’ these days?” I ask. She smiles and says, “You know what I mean, Dr. S.” The fact was that I knew precisely what she meant. In the plastic surgery community, we have seen a surge in “soft tissue” aka “dermal” aka “skin” fillers. Last year alone, approximately 2 million individuals had some type of hyaluronic acid (HA) filler injected. This is the second most common non-surgical cosmetic procedure performed in the United States…behind Botox injections. The explosion and interest in getting HA fillers lie in the overall increased safety profile over permanent fillers like silicone, lack of need for allergy testing and allergic reactions like collagen, and relative ease of removing the product with a safe enzyme injection instead of surgical intervention. It’s highly apropos that Allergan [makers of Juvederm, Botox, and Kybella would roll out a new/refined dermal filler on the 10^th birthday of Juvederm—Volbella.

My first sneak peak into Volbella came 6 months ago during a Key Opinion Leader Advisory Board meeting pertaining to Facial Aesthetics. I, along with a handful of colleagues from around the country, was fortunate to be selected to “play” with new fillers in the pipeline. We injected the new and old fillers on microscope slides and compared ease of injection with viscosity and consistency of the material. The best way to describe Volbella is “lipstick in a syringe.” Volbella was developed specifically for lips and lines around the mouth area.

Small injections of Volbella can help to:

– Enhance the cupid’s bow (the dip in the middle of the upper lip leading to a “pouty”/sexy appearance)

– Define the natural lip contour by accentuating the vermillion border (outline of the lips)

– Smooth the fine, vertical lines, appearing around the lips (also known as “smoker’s lines”)

– Treat oral commissures (where the corners of the mouth turn down)

– Treat marionette lines, which appear from the corners of the mouth and course down to the chin

Volbella incorporates Allergan’s trademarked Vycross technology. There are a lot of technicalities that go into Vycross products [Juvederm Voluma, Volbella, and on the horizon…Volift, but the gist is Vycross technology relates to the molecular structure and how the HA molecules are cross-linked. While most HA fillers are formulated with a 100% high-molecular-weight Hyaluronic Acid, the fillers in the Vycross Collection are all formulated with just 10% high-molecular-weight HA and 90 percent low-molecular-weight HA.

What this all means for you as a patient:

– The filler itself is a lot smoother, making the injection easier and less painful.

– There is less swelling post-treatment.

– The results feel and look very natural.

– The results will last longer.

Over the past decade, we have seen changes in the formulations of dermal fillers to better suit patients’ needs. The Vycross Collection of fillers is an evolved and refined group of HA dermal fillers with incredible promise. Voluma, Vobella, and hopefully soon Volift are in VOgue for dermal fillers.