Hello, hello!
My recent Sculptra posts seem to have touched a nerve with some, so before answering your remaining questions, I want to address the ire that occasionally comes my way when I dare to suggest that a popular cosmetic treatment may not be entirely amazing for absolutely every person on the planet.
If you remember, I launched this newsletter to create a space for exploring debate and controversy in aesthetics. My goal has always been to look beyond industry bias and marketing in order to deliver fair, well-rounded reporting on trends and procedures. Simply put, I’m aiming to tell you all the things that I’d want to know as an aesthetics consumer.
Oftentimes, though, the mention of a side effect or shortcoming elicits defensive comments from the medical professionals who offer these treatments. Some react as if I’ve insulted a loved one when I scrutinize a shot or machine. And immediately I feel terrible. But then I think: If you’re performing cosmetic procedures, aren’t you covering these same risks and limitations during informed consent? If so, why get prickly when I relay similar facts, from experienced clinicians, in a balanced and non-fearmongering fashion?
It seems to me that doctors, nurses, and PAs have all kinds of valid treatment experiences. And there’s usually something to be learned from them, even when a provider’s opinions don’t align with a pharmaceutical company’s talking points.
Or, perhaps, especially then. The public wants more than a gushy social media sales pitch. In both the surgical and nonsurgical realms, patients report feeling uninformed and even misled about procedural risks. They’re expressing their discontent daily in plastic surgery support groups across the Internet.
When I collected Sculptra questions from readers, the majority pertained to safety. One particular risk that more and more people are inquiring about is the potential for Sculptra (and other collagen builders) to complicate facelifts. Dozens of you asked about this. Since I have an in-depth report on the phenomenon coming soon, I have to limit what I say here.
For now, I’ll share this take from Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Catherine Chang, who performs facelifts and Sculptra injections routinely:
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Aesthetics Unfiltered to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.