If you’re thinking about filler, we’re sure you’re wondering “How many syringes of filler do I need to achieve the look I’m after (without looking crazy – and without spending more than I need to)?” The box below gives you an idea of what to expect, and if you’re looking for more details, you’ll find a lot more detailed info, including photo comparisons, below!
How Much Filler Do I Need: Areas Treated with Approximate Price Ranges
“How much filler do I need?” is THE question on patients’ minds when they come to our skilled physician injectors for fillers. This blog is going to hopefully break it down in a way that’s easy to understand, but the best way to get this answer for you and your individual needs is always going to be to come in for a free consultation with one of our physician injectors.
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How much filler is in a syringe?
Most of the hyaluronic-acid based fillers that are FDA-Approved in the U.S. contain 1ml of product. There are some exceptions, though, including Volbella (0.7ml),
Radiesse and Sculptra, which work to stimulate new collagen growth, rather than adding volume, aren’t as easy to compare in terms of how many syringes you’ll need. Sculptra actually comes in vials, though most patients use 2-4 vials, used throughout the entire face. Radiesse can be used in certain areas, like the jawline or nose, to create specific results, and when it is being used that way (as opposed to very thinly throughout the top layer of the skin to create tightening and firming), then we generally use just 1-3 syringes, depending upon how large of an impact is needed.
Is it Aging, or Are We Tweaking? How Big of a Change Do You Want?
The first thing that’s going to dramatically impact the amount of filler you need is how big of a change you need or want to achieve your desired look. Generally, the older you get, the more filler you need to correct age-related changes (that just makes sense, right?). More on that later.
“Facial Sculpting” generally refers to using filler to change the face’s contours, whereas a “Liquid Facelift” is meant to be an anti-aging rejuvenative procedure. But the truth is, most people are doing both – small changes and anti-aging effects – and that’s really the best way to highlight and enhance your natural beauty.
Let’s talk about using filler to contour your face, though, because that has become a very big trend, and a lot of people are looking to make some small “tweaks” to their look, even if they are mainly looking to reverse aging. You can change the face’s contours with filler, and if done correctly, it can be a really pretty and natural-looking result. Of course the skill of the injector dramatically impacts how natural your results are. But when you’re looking to create changes to your facial proportions and shape with filler, it’s important to think about how big of a change you’d like to make, because a bigger change means more filler, and usually more cost. Remember a syringe is generally around 1/5 of a teaspoon in volume.
How much filler do I need to treat….
Below we’ll delve into more detail about each of these treatment areas, and who might need more or less filler, and why, but for now, check out this handy table that tells you (approximately) how many syringes of filler you’ll need per treatment area.
Lips
Most commonly, just 1 syringe is used for augmenting the lips, regardless of the type of filler you use. Occasionally, we will build up to 2 or even 3 syringes in the lips for a patient, but this is usually an older patient who has lost some of the definition and structure in the lips, as well as volume. We are conservative with lip fillers, because we know so many people have seen the over-done lips of celebrities and Instagram models, and wish to avoid results like those.
We do also use filler to smooth out lip lines around the mouth, and sometimes we use Botox to perform a lip flip, in addition to filler.
Cheeks
When doing filler injections for the cheeks, we typically recommend 2-6 syringes. Weight loss and illness can also negatively impact the fat pads in the cheeks, causing patients to need more filler to restore them to a youthful appearance.
Smile Lines (Nasolabial Folds)
1-2 syringes will work to smooth smile lines, provided your cheeks are not sagging and thereby contributing to the problem. Some patients do develop deep smile lines before their cheeks sag, but for many, the issue is really that the cheeks have lost volume and are drooping over where they meet other parts of the face, such as the junction at the smile lines and jowls along the jawline.
When cheeks are also part of the issue, generally lifting and re-filling the cheeks will provide a change to the smile lines that most patients are happy with – so it’s not likely you’ll need both 2-6 syringes for the cheeks AND 1-2 for the smile lines, but rather will see meaningful changes to the smile lines by just doing the 2-6 to the cheeks. Your free consultation with one of our injecting physicians will help guide you through what exactly we recommend to achieve your goals.
Jawline Contouring
Jawline contouring with fillers, has become one of the biggest filler trends of 2020. Most patients will need 2-4 syringes to achieve a sharp, defined look. Those looking for a softer result may be able to achieve it with less.
Generally, we find older patients have lost some of their normal bone volume, as part of the natural aging process, and they usually need a very firm filler, like Radiesse, Defyne, or Voluma, which tend to be more expensive, but do last longer.
Younger patients are usually looking to “tweak” their look – and that can be a small tweak with a softer filler, such as with 1-2 syringes Juvederm., or it can be a more dramatic change, such as with 4 syringes of Radiesse.
Temples
The temples are often an overlooked part of the face, but 2-4 syringes for a temple that’s hollowed out can completely change the proportions of the face.
Brow Lifting
Fillers can replace lost volume over the outside corner of the eye that causes the brow to droop. This is a normal aging-related change, and tends to be more of an issue for women, as men have more muscle volume in the brow vs. fat, whereas women have more fat volume in that area than muscle. A little bit of filler, usually just 1 syringe, placed with a cannula (to reduce any risks of bruising, swelling, etc.) can create a profound but natural lift for the brow.
Frown Lines
Occasionally, frown lines (also called 11’s between the brows) develop into very deeply set-in lines. In this case, Botox alone will not fix the problem. However, adding just 1 syringe of filler is generally plenty to resolve deep frown lines.
Chin
Chin Augmentation used to be only possible through surgery, but over the past decade the nations’ top injectors have created a set of injection techniques that allows for the augmentation, sculpting, and recontouring of the chin with dermal fillers. This process usually requires between 2 and 4 syringes of filler, and because the chin is a bony protrusion, we tend to use much firmer fillers that mimic bone’s firmness, such as Voluma, Defyne, or Radiesse. These are generally on the more expensive end of filler but do last longer, especially when injected deep, as we normally do in this treatment area.
Nose
Nose filler (also called nose job injection) can be used to recontour the nose, and is most commonly used to smooth out small imperfections in the profile of the nose. Because of safety concerns related to compression caused by swelling and filler, you really want to stick to just 1 syringe per treatment session, and most patients only need 1 syringe in total to achieve their desired results.
Neck for Necklace Lines
Necklace lines are those horizontal rings of wrinkling that develop on the neck. Sometimes you’ll also hear this referred to as “tech neck” because it is believed looking down into our phones makes these wrinkles worse. Typicaly, just 1 syringe of filler is enough to fill in these lines.
However, some patients may instead decide to treat overall crepeyness and skin laxity of the neck with hyperdilute Radiesse or Sculptra, in which case we tend to recommend 1-2 of those, augmented with a laser or RF Microneedling.
Hands
Generally, your hands will only need 2-3 syringes. 1 per hand is the most common. The results from this procedure do last much longer than filler placed in other areas, in our experience, though you can expect more swelling and potential bruising afterwards. Patients do tend to enjoy that this is a good “bang for your buck” procedure, and it can be combined with a laser or microneedling to address skin laxity and dark sun spots at the same time.
Decollete Lines
Just like the neck, decollete lines are wrinkles formed by repetitive motion – in this case, from side sleeping or wearing cleavage-enhancing bras that push breasts together so that a line forms down the center of the chest. These lines are easily smoothed out with a single syringe of filler.
However, if you want to treat overall skin elasticity and youthfulness, a solution of hyperdilute Sculptra or Radiesse, combined with microneedling or a laser, is a better injectable option, since that will spur on the growth of new collagen throughout the chest in its entirety.
Facial Sculpting
Facial Sculpting (also called permanent contouring) is a new trend in filler that means changing, or tweaking your facial features, through the use of filler injections. Generally, the results you see on Instagram or YouTube are created using around 4-8 syringes. This is enough filler to tweak several parts of the face, such as cheekbones, chin, jawline, nose, chin, etc. Generally, this is a treatment performed on younger patients who really don’t have much volume-loss due to aging, but are instead looking to create small changes to their look.
Liquid Facelift (full face – anti-aging)
A liquid facelift is an older term used to mean a comprehensive treatment to turn back the effects of aging using filler and Botox. Sometimes patients do also take this opportunity to tweak or enhance certain features, but when anti-aging alone is the goal, patients usually need between 4 and 10 syringes, depending upon age.
How Much Does a Syringe of Filler Cost?
This can really vary widely based on the type of filler, as our pricing to purchase these products varies quite a bit, too. The current range as of March 2020 is from $650 to $1050 per syringe or vial.
Make Your Filler Results Last Longer
One of the best ways to save money with filler is to get the results to last longer. We’ve written a whole blog on that subject – check it out here: How to Make Your Filler Last Longer.
Reflections offers free consultations with our physician injectors. Please contact us to schedule today!
