Consider Restylane if you’ve noticed signs of aging in your face. Your body naturally starts to produce less collagen and hyaluronic acid over time. Since these are the “building blocks” that give skin its structure, skin begins to lose its firmness as we age.

Restylane restores some of that hyaluronic acid to help bring back the look of fullness and elasticity to your skin. If have been experiencing a loss of volume, Restylane may be the right treatment for you. Restylane has been used on the face, hands, and décolleté.

Normal recovery time for treatment with Restylane is only 2-3 days. The most commonly observed side effects are swelling, redness, pain, numbness, bruising, headache, tenderness, lump formation, and itching at the injection site. These are typically mild in severity and typically resolve in less than 7 days in nasolabial folds and less than 14 days in lips. Lump formation that does not go away on its own can be treated with hyaluronidase.

Serious but rare side effects include delayed onset infections, recurrence of herpetic eruptions in those who have HSV, and superficial necrosis (death of the outside layer of cells) at the injection site. One of the risks with using this product is unintentional injection into a blood vessel. The chances of this happening are very small, but if it does happen, the complications can be serious, and may be permanent. These complications, which have been reported for facial injections, can include vision abnormalities, blindness, stroke, temporary scabs, or permanent scarring of the skin.

To help reduce the risk of severe adverse reactions, Restylane should not be used on skin with inflammation or any skin disease. Not enough information is known about the effects of Restylane on pregnancy or breast feeding, so those with these conditions should not use Restylane.