Dr Lalloo has been using Radiesse in the hands for over ten years now, at last the FDA have caught up!

Cost, €450 – 800 for both hands. No down time as such.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the injectable dermal filler Radiesse (Merz North America, Inc) for hand augmentation to correct volume loss in the dorsum of the hands, the company announced June 4.

Earlier this year, as reported by Medscape Medical News, the FDA’s General and Plastic Surgery Devices Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee voted 9 to 4 that the benefits of Radiesse outweigh its risks. A majority of panelists also voted that it is safe and effective.

“Radiesse provides an immediate volumizing effect and can help to reduce the prominence of tendons and veins in the hands, delivering smooth, natural-looking results that can last up to 1 year,” the company said.

Radiesse is an opaque dermal filler composed of synthetic calcium hydroxylapatite microspheres suspended in a water-based gel carrier. It was first approved in the United States in 2001, and has since had subsequent approvals, including for correction of nasolabial folds in 2006. It has been used off-label for hand augmentation — and is approved in 52 countries for that indication.

Data to support FDA approval for hand augmentation came from a multicenter, randomized controlled study of 114 patients. Most were white women with an average age of 53 years. Eighty-five patients were randomly assigned to immediate treatment, and 29 to delayed treatment and were considered controls. The control group crossed over to treatment at 12 weeks.

The effectiveness of Radiesse was measured by the Merz Hand Grading Scale (MHGS) — validated by the company in another study — and the Global Aesthetic Improvement Scale (GAIS), which the patients used to self-assess results.

According to the MHGS, 75% of Radiesse patients experienced at least a one-point improvement at 3 months compared with 3% of those in the control group. The mean change in the MHGS from baseline was 1.1 point for those given Radiesse compared with 0.1 in the control group.

In addition, 98% of treated patients reported improvement in the appearance of their hands at 3 months. Improved aesthetic outcomes as measured on the GAIS after initial and repeat treatments correlating with clinical improvement were demonstrated in this study, with all primary and secondary endpoints being met, the company said.

Most adverse events were injection site reactions such as swelling, redness, pain, and bruising, which were usually mild to moderate, short in duration (lasting about 1 week), and required no treatment. No severe device-related adverse events were reported that required treatment, according to the company.

Radiesse is contraindicated for patients with severe allergies manifested by a history of anaphylaxis, or history or presence of multiple severe allergies; patients with known hypersensitivity to any of the components; and patients with bleeding disorders.

Botox Injections May Affect Skin Structure

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Injections of onabotulinum toxin A increase skin pliability and elastic recoil, new findings show.
“Apart from just seeing the paralysis in the muscles that are treated, we are also seeing changes in the skin that are indicative of possible changes in fibroblasts,” Dr. James Bonaparte of the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada, one of the new study’s authors, told Reuters Health.
The findings raise the possibility that botulinum toxin A has direct anti-aging effects on the skin, and also suggest that it may be useful for scar treatment, Dr. Bonaparte added in a telephone interview.
Previous investigations have shown that wrinkles fade after repeated botox injections, but the reason why is not clear, Dr. Bonaparte and Dr. David Ellis of the University of Toronto noted in their report, published online May 21 in JAMA Facial and Plastic Surgery.
In a 2014 study, Dr. Bonaparte and Dr. Ellis reported biomechanical changes in the skin after botox injections, but their study only followed patients for up to two months (http://bit.ly/1J1Om02). Critics had questioned whether these changes were due to inflammation from the injections.
In the current study, to address this issue, the researchers followed patients for four months. They enrolled 48 women with no previous botox injections and with mild wrinkles at the glabella and lateral orbit. Forty-three women completed the study. The researchers used a Cutometer MPA 580 skin elasticity meter (Courage & Khazaka Electronic, Cologne, German), which measures deformation and relaxation of the skin when suction is applied and removed.
All patients received injections to the glabella, supraorbit, and lateral orbit, and all showed increases in skin pliability and elastic recoil at all sites.
Study participants also had reductions in the ratio of the viscoelastic component of resistance to elastic resistance, indicating that the changes were not related to swelling and inflammation. All measurements had returned to baseline levels by four months.
It’s possible, Dr. Bonaparte said, that fibroblasts may have receptors that interact with botox, causing the cells to produce more collagen, elastin and other substances that tighten the skin. He pointed to a 2014 laboratory study that found onabotulinum toxin A blocked the expression of aging-related proteins in fibroblasts exposed to UV B radiation, while increasing collagen production (http://bit.ly/1FDrNuA).
If this hypothesis is true, he added, it may be possible to reduce wrinkles by injecting onabotulinum toxin A directly into the skin, rather than using it to paralyze facial muscles. And if the injections do produce these changes in fibroblasts, he added, they could prove useful for scar treatment.
In an editorial, Dr. Catherine Winslow of Indiana University School of Medicine in Bloomington notes that onabotulinum toxin A could also directly affect skin by preventing the release of free radicals that occurs with muscular contraction.
“Piecing together this research with continued studies on elasticity and collagen content of injected skin will further the ability of facial plastic surgeons to refine their strategy for long-term planning of antiaging strategies with patients and educate them as to the importance of nonsurgical therapies for maintenance, in addition to opening new fields of potential treatment options for difficult scars and skin conditions,” she concludes.
Dr. Ellis and Dr. Bonaparte have received funding from Allergan, which markets onabotulinum toxin A as Botox.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1FDupZw
JAMA Facial Plastic Surg 2015.

We are now providing the revolutionary fat dissolving injections called Aqualyx, the first to be FDA approved for removal of stubborn fat pads that won’t go with diet and exercise alone. The approval is for removal of unwanted fat from the jowl and chin fat pads.

We also use it for any fat pad on the body.

Cost one area is two handfuls of fat,  say your lower tummy and due to the cost of product this works out at €600 per treatment, some people will need one, most ‘slimish’ people two treatments, but compared to Lipodissolve Fat dissolving Injections the results are much better.

It is NOT for weight loss !!!Ready for Summer

Special Offers for a limited time only

Anti-Wrinkle Injections:

One area – €250
Two areas –  €350
Three areas –  €425
A fourth area is an additional –  €75

Combination Packages:

One area anti-wrinkle injections and filler* –  €475.00
Two areas anti-wrinkle injections and filler* –  €575.00
Three areas anti-wrinkle injections and filler* –  €650.00
*Lip enhancement is an additional €50.00

Prices are correct at time of publication November 2014. We reserve the right to change prices at any time. Prices are subject to consultation at which point patients will receive their final quotation.

cliniccontactrate-aspxCosmedics have been rated within the top 5% of clinics for customer service by WhatClinic.com patients which qualifies to 2012 Customer Service award.

Cosmedics have scored 86% positive feedback from 281 WhatClinic.com patients between July 2011 and June 2012.

By the term Botulinum Toxin Injections I refer to any medication used to treat lines and wrinkles by injection to weaken muscles of facial expression. I am not referring to any brand, but the words ‘having my B*T*X has become synonymous with the treatment itself, not the medication used.

In today’s financial climate I can’t blame people for searching out the best value they can get, after all money is hard to come by and we all want to feel as if we have got a good deal. I have had more inquiries from people who are price conscious than ever, but is there a hidden cost to cheap Anti-Wrinkle treatments? Here are a few reasons why I think sometimes the answer is an overwhelming yes.

1) With beauty salons feeling the financial pinch they are naturally looking for sources of income and because we have no regulation where Anti-Wrinkle treatments are done, the door is wide open to them. I don’t have a problem with a well run salon, with a competent doctor and high standards, however having seen a multitude of disasters come through my doors I have to say they are far and few between. I’ve seen patients whose eyes have closed, faces look like they have had strokes and skin infections from dirty needles come into the clinic. Many of them have no idea who actually injected them or what the qualifications of the person doing the treatments were! In Ireland it is illegal for a nurse to inject B*T*X and not a lot of people realize this. There are even some really unscrupulous beauticians injecting people after being on a one day course, that means nothing. They must be very clever people because it took me six years of medical school and four more years of surgical training to know the muscles of the face well enough to even try to do the treatment.

2) Watered down Anti-Wrinkle Medication. To do for example a forehead and laughter lines I use almost two bottles of B*T*X For me to buy a vial of Botulinum Toxin from the wholesaler costs well over 200 Euro a bottle, so to offer it for say the forehead at less than 200 Euro has to mean you must be getting less put in than you should be. Perhaps you may think that’s OK if you don’t want that much, but watered down B*T*X spreads quite far and apart from lasting the spread means a high chance of a crooked smile or an eye that shuts.

3) Remote prescribing. In the recent past the General Medical Council has thankfully stopped doctors from giving nurses signed prescriptions for patients who they have never seen. This may sound like madness to prescribe a powerful toxin to someone you have never met, but there is a clinic in the North of Ireland doing just this and offering full upper face Anti-Wrinkle Injections for 250 pounds. That means to me it has to watered down and even worse the patient never sees a doctor! The nurses inject from a diagram and so everyone gets the same injections, even though everyone looks different.