What is collagen?

What is collagen?

Steve Fallek (Plastic Surgeon and Medical Director, Face Focus Medical Spa) gives expert video advice on: How many different types of dermal fillers are available?; How do I find a qualified medical spa that performs dermal filler treatments?; Can I wear makeup after receiving any dermal filler treatment? and more...

For a long time collagen was considered the gold standard for dermal fillers because it worked and it was effective. The problem with collagen is, because it was made from bovine collagen or non-human (actually cow) collagen, it required pre-testing. That means that patients would have to come in, get a small injection of the collagen usually in the arm area, and then patients would come back two weeks later to see whether or not they had a reaction to the collagen. Now for the patients that had collagen it works great and it really is effective, but most patients didn't want to wait two weeks before having collagen injections. What happened was that new dermal fillers, such as Restylane, Juvederm, Perlane came out. The hyaluronic acid fillers came out. There was no pre-testing that was required. This made our job much easier and patients could have a treatment at that exact time. Therefore collagen, although safe, effective, and having been in use for many, many years has really started to have been phased out.