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The term fillers generally refers to substances injected into the face to enhance features or reduce signs of aging. The most common type of filler is based on hyaluronic acid, a naturally occurring substance in our bodies that helps retain moisture and adds volume. While other materials like Radiesse (calcium hydroxylapatite) and autologous fat are also used, hyaluronic acid remains the most popular due to its effectiveness and safety profile.
One of the concerns that often comes up with facial fillers is the idea of filler migration. This term refers to the notion that once injected into one area, say the cheeks, the filler might unintentionally move to another, such as near the brows or chin. However, the likelihood of such dramatic migration is generally very low. The structure of human skin, with its multiple layers and dense composition, makes it difficult for injected substances to move far from the original site.
That said, minor migration can occur, especially influenced by the muscular activity around areas like the eyes and mouth. If the muscles in these areas are particularly strong or frequently manipulated, they can potentially push the filler into adjacent, unintended areas. This type of displacement is often subtle but can be more noticeable if the filler hasn’t been placed precisely or if it’s situated in more mobile facial planes.
We’ve noticed that issues attributed to “filler migration” often stem from injection techniques rather than the filler itself migrating through facial tissues. For example, if an injector places the filler inappropriately in the lips, it may appear as if the filler has migrated to the upper part of the lip when in reality, it was the initial placement that was off. At Aesthetic Skin Chicago, we focus on careful and precise injection techniques and our strong understanding of facial anatomy to prevent this unintended filler placement.
Ultimately, while filler migration is possible, it is usually limited and can be mitigated by skilled injectors using appropriate techniques. Most issues that appear as migration are often due to initial misplacement or external factors such as intense muscular activity. As always, choosing experienced professionals and discussing all concerns and expectations before undergoing any filler treatments is crucial for achieving the best and safest outcomes.
The video in this post has been transcribed using an automated service. Please forgive any typographic errors or other transcription flaws.
Dr. Shah:
If we’re talking about fillers and fillers, if those you don’t know are basically anything you inject in the face, mostly they’re hyaluronic acid, hyaluronic acid’s, kinda like this natural gel that occurred in our body. They can also be things like radius and fat and a bunch of other things. But most of the time we’re talking about filler, we’re talking about hyaluronic acid, and we’re talking about whether or not it migrates filler migration means that you’ll place fill in one part of your past. Let’s say you place it in your cheek and the next thing you know, like your fill ended up all the way over here by your brow or in your chin. And I don’t think those types of changes like really actually happened. And if you look at skin and try to actually pass something through there, it’s really hard to like move things and even specific layers.
So to inject something from one area and have it go all the way in this area is possible, uh, and but to have it migrate again, I think it’s less likely that’s happening. The other thing that we worry about is like, you know, can it go from let’s say down in your cheek, up into your eye just a little bit more? I do actually think that can happen. And that can be from really strong muscles that are surrounding the eye, surrounding the mouth. And again, if you’re moving them a lot, manipulating them, that can actually push the filler into different positions. So again, if you are not able to, um, place the filler in their appropriate spot, um, it can move a little bit in our office. Um, for some reason we don’t see a lot of filler migration with our injectors, and that just might be because we’re placing things in specific planes that don’t necessarily move as much.
But we do see a decent number of patients from outside offices where the filler seems to have gone, like there’s aiming, put it in the lip and it goes into the top part of the lip that’s very common where they try to put it around the eye, then it moved down or moved over. And again, for some reason we don’t see that as much in our office. And I think in those cases it probably wasn’t actually even filler migration. I actually think it was due to the patient’s injection technique when they started in the lower part of the lip, when in the lip up into the, um, into the white part of the lip versus the red part of the lip. Now the patients have filler in a spot they didn’t want it to be in. So, um, is filler migration real? I think it can move with the muscle activity, but I think most filler issues and migration issues we see in our office are probably from port.