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“It is the impact that the medical-aesthetic treatments we undergo throughout our lives can have. An imprint that can be positive, because over time it improves the general characteristics of the patient, or negative, because they end up modifying facial features in an unnatural way,” explains Dr. Alejandra Vago, a specialist in facial aesthetics and member of the EIMEC training team, in a conceptual way.
In the history of aesthetic medicine, this is a term coined in recent times and refers – as the name suggests – to the impact that treatments can have on a person throughout his or her lifetime. In other words, the procedures one undergoes when young, for example, can influence the face 20 or 30 years later. As Dr. Vago points out, there are different types of footprints, and one of them is the positive one, which refers to the treatment that over time improves the patient’s general features, “favoring the patient to look good, achieving natural results in the long term” and, mainly, respecting the anatomy and needs of each person.
On the other hand, there are the unwanted consequences: the negative footprint. “Which would be all those results that modify in an unnatural way the facial features, giving a pillow face aspect -exemplifies Vago- Currently, we can observe that negative impact in the filler materials that were used before, especially in the decade of the ’90s. Materials that were not biodegradable, but [according to the availability and technological advances of the time], they were the best available at that time.
Dra. Alejandra Vago
Undesired results
We can speak of a negative aesthetic footprint, then, when an undesired result is seen after a treatment, either because the application technique has not been correct, because the time between sessions has not been respected and the infiltrated product has not degraded completely, or because the recommended doses of application have been exceeded, among some of the causes that appear most frequently in the office.
The experts also agree that, even today, it is common to see the after-effects of, for example, permanent filler materials used in the past, such as injected silicone in many patients. However, they also warn that any aesthetic treatment is likely to leave a negative aesthetic imprint if due precautions are not taken. At present, there are even several professionals who report an increase in the negative footprint due to the misuse of resorbable fillers, and they explain that -among other reasons- this is due to poor technique when infiltrating them.
Aesthetic ultrasound as a key tool
Also, they insist, because of the inappropriate tendency to inject excessive amounts of these products in order to achieve a certain facial canon: very voluminous lips, very projected cheekbones or a jaw profile that is too sharp. Excesses that are consequently responsible for artificial results, malformations due to product accumulation, skin distension and flaccidity due to excess filler.
To diagnose the negative impression, one of the tools used by doctors and surgeons is aesthetic ultrasound, in order to detect if there are still traces of product and to make an appropriate reading of the impact on the tissues.
