You might not put too much thought into which pointy instrument is used to inject your fillers, but chances are, your physician does. During the past year, cannulas have become more preferred over regular needles in some instances. Here’s why:
A needle, which is sharp at the end, will simply pierce its way through the skin and tissue to get to its injection area. A cannula, on the other hand, has a rounded tip that allows the physician to feel his or her way through the skin and deeper tissues. With a cannula, the practitioner can feel if he or she is approaching a blood vessel, vein or artery, and maneuver around them to avoid damage that results in the bruising and swelling sometimes related to filler injections.
Because the cannula has a rounded tip, a small needle hole has to be made to insert the cannula. Yet because the cannula is longer, multiple areas can be treated at once, requiring only one insertion point rather than making additional needle holes.
Denver, CO, dermatologist Joel L. Cohen explained which areas he prefers to use cannulas on during the South Beach Clinical Dermatology Symposium. “Cannulas have very specific roles in very specific areas,” he said. “Personally, I have found them useful in the cheek, the infraorbital area [below the eye], in the décolleté and the dorsal hands.”
In addition to less bruising and swelling, some patients experience less pain with cannulas, however, needles are still preferred in areas like nasolabial folds. Either way, it’s an option that some of the nation’s top dermatologists are talking about and mentioned cannulas in our video on beauty breakthroughs.
