Aesthetic Injectable Treatments: Types and Aftercare

The short answer

Aesthetic injectables are prescription products delivered by needle or cannula to soften lines, restore volume, stimulate collagen or dissolve small fat pockets. They suit adults who want visible change without surgery and can accept results that fade over months rather than lasting permanently.

Know the types

Four families cover almost everything on a treatment menu, and they behave nothing alike.

Neuromodulators — Botox, Dysport, Xeomin, Jeuveau and Daxxify — are purified botulinum toxin type A. They quiet the muscle that creases the skin, so they work on movement lines: the elevens between the brows, forehead lines, crow's feet. Onset runs two to seven days depending on the product, peak effect lands around day 14, and most people see the effect fade between month three and month four. Daxxify is formulated to run longer for some patients. A neuromodulator will not fill a static crease that is etched in at rest.

Hyaluronic acid fillers — the Juvederm, Restylane and RHA lines — add volume where tissue has thinned or descended: cheeks, tear troughs, lips, chin, jawline, nasolabial folds. Gel thickness varies enormously across the range, which is why one product is right for lip body and another for cheek projection. Their real advantage is reversibility: hyaluronidase dissolves them within days if placement is wrong or a vascular complication occurs. Longevity is typically six to eighteen months by product and area, with lips at the short end.

Collagen biostimulators work indirectly. Sculptra (poly-L-lactic acid) and Radiesse (calcium hydroxylapatite) trigger your own collagen production over roughly six to twelve weeks, usually across a series of two to four sessions spaced a month apart. You do not walk out looking finished, and they are not reversible, so conservative dosing matters more here than anywhere else.

Fat-reducing and skin-quality injectables round out the category. Deoxycholic acid breaks down submental fat under the chin across two to four sessions six weeks apart, with a swollen fortnight after each. Microdroplet hyaluronic acid boosters such as Skinvive treat surface hydration and light reflection rather than shape. Platelet-rich plasma and PRF are drawn from your own blood and used for skin texture and under-eye tone, with more modest and more variable results than marketing usually implies.

Benefits, and the honest limits

The genuine appeal is proportional change with a same-day return to normal life. A neuromodulator appointment takes ten minutes and leaves at most a few pinpoint marks. Filler placed well restores structure that reads as rest rather than work. Biostimulators improve skin quality in a way no filler does, because you are adding collagen rather than gel.

The limits are equally real. Injectables do not tighten loose skin — that is the province of energy devices or surgery, and no volume of filler substitutes for a facelift. They do not treat pigmentation, broken capillaries, or acne scarring. Results are temporary by design, so the honest question before starting is whether you want an ongoing commitment of two to four appointments a year. And overfilling is cumulative: the most common regret is not a bad single session but five years of small additions that changed the shape of a face.

Complication risk is low but not zero. Bruising is common, asymmetry is correctable, and vascular occlusion — filler entering a blood vessel — is the rare emergency that makes injector training and on-site hyaluronidase non-negotiable.

What it costs

Pricing for injectables is not standardised, and we have no verified national pricing sample for this category, so no figures are quoted here. What drives a quote is straightforward: neuromodulators are usually sold per unit or per treated area, and unit counts vary widely by muscle strength and sex. Fillers are sold by the syringe, and one syringe is often too little for a structural area such as midface. Biostimulator pricing is per vial across a planned series, so ask for the total cost of the full protocol rather than the price of session one. Injector seniority, metropolitan market and whether a practice runs membership pricing move the number further.

Aftercare

The first four hours after a neuromodulator matter most: stay upright, skip the gym, and do not rub, massage or apply pressure to the treated area, including facials and face-down massage. Expect any small bumps to settle within an hour.

After filler, ice intermittently for the first day, sleep on your back with your head elevated for two nights, and avoid strenuous exercise, saunas, steam rooms and hot yoga for 24 to 48 hours. Bruising, if it happens, peaks around day two or three and clears by day seven to ten; arnica helps some people, concealer helps everyone. Swelling in lips can double their apparent size for 48 hours — do not judge the result until it settles. Postpone dental work for about two weeks after facial filler, and delay filler for two weeks after dental work, because both direct pressure and bacteraemia can cause problems.

To reduce bruising in the first place, stop non-essential blood thinners, fish oil, vitamin E and high-dose anti-inflammatories for several days beforehand if your physician approves, and skip alcohol for 24 hours on either side. Book any injectable at least two weeks before an event, never the week of it.

Finally, keep the two-week review appointment. Neuromodulator results are only fully readable at day 14, and small asymmetries are trivial to correct at that visit and awkward to correct three months later.