For Washington D.C. dermatologist Tina Alster, MD, looking good is part of her business. With a bustling practice and her finger on the pulse of everything new in the world of beauty—and what’s coming down the pipeline—she, like so many other dermatologists and plastic surgeons, offers the Silhouette Instalift on her menu of services.
While Dr. Alster is a big proponent of maintenance treatments (she does Botox regularly, a little bit of filler as needed and Ultherapy, too), she admits that it was time to “take it to another level.”
“I started seeing some jowling, but because of what I do I don’t really have the time for surgery, and I’m not there just yet, either. I’ve really been holding things down with the treatments I do, but I wanted to better address my jawline. I was able to get away with doing the noninvasive thing for so long.” Silhouette Instalift was the answer.
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Done on a Friday afternoon after work, Dr. Alster was back to work on Monday. “I saw an immediate effect in the tightness of my jaw area. Nobody could even tell I had it done, but it worked wonders on the areas that were bothering me,” she says. “Twelve hours after I had it done, I had to drive someone to the airport and I was totally fine by then.”
Using absorbable cone sutures made of biodegradable polymers, the sutures are inserted into the skin to instantly tighten and lift problem areas affected by volume loss like the cheeks, jowls, lips and neck, while stimulating the body to build collagen in the area where the sutures are placed. Attached to the fine threads are tiny cones that lift and tighten from underneath the skin while simultaneously causing inflammation, which helps to stimulate collagen growth over time. While you are awake during the procedure, lidocaine is first injected into the area to be treated before the sutures are tunneled underneath the skin. “You don’t really feel much other than some touching of the suture. It’s pretty painless,” says Dr. Alster, who says that the results last about 18–24 months.
Following the procedure, Dr. Alster says that patients can pretty much go back to their normal life right away. “There may be some swelling or bruising because of the injected anesthesia. I also tell them to avoid eating apples, yawning or laughing at first because you don’t want the sutures to pull. And, sleeping on a few extra pillows with your head up is helpful, too.”
So, why would someone choose the Instalift procedure over a facelift? For starters, the cost is less. Also, there’s no recovery, no downtime, no stitches and no pain.
“For me, the procedure was quick and easy. And it took everything to another level, which is what I wanted. I’ve even received a lot of comments on my skin and how good it looks—that’s because of the collagenesis from the material in the cones. It cleaned up my jowls and I’m so very happy with the results.”
