A Touch of Youth

By: Katharine Griffiths
Created on 20th September 2011

Lorna Bowes of Wigmore Medical takes a closer look at Ellansé™ – part of a new generation of dermal fillers

For many years the dermal filler market has been dominated by collagen and hyaluronic acid based fillers. More recently new technologies and scientific innovations have started to change the way the aesthetic industry chooses which fillers to use for which indications.

Ellansé™ is one of these new innovative products. It has been specifically designed using the same material, polycaprolactone, as the well known and trusted resorbable suture for patients seeking longer-lasting results in medical aesthetics.

What is the benefit of a resorbable material? It means that once the filler has done its job, it breaks down and leaves the body completely, or in more technical terms, the polycaprolactone microspheres completely bioresorb into nontoxic degradation products which are readily excreted through the normal metabolic pathways.

The specifically designed microsphere characteristics of the biodegradable polyester polycaprolactone provide a safe and long-lasting high quality scaffold for tissue infiltration – or in other words, the fact that the product is made up of spheres allows the skin to be lifted and held in place to offer excellent facial contouring results.

The spherical nature of the polycaprolactone that Ellansé™ is composed of also allows for simple and easy injection, allowing the practitioner doing your treatment to concentrate on the results they are providing rather than the injection process.

Many of today’s leading skincare ranges and most popular peels are based on glycolic acid technology, and lactic acid is also a popular peeling agent, it is interesting to note that these biodegradable polyesters (polymers) have been based on glycolic and/or lactic acid for many decades.

There are four members of the Ellansé™ family: Ellansé™-S, Ellansé™-M, Ellansé™-L and Ellansé™-E. They differ only in their duration of performance. All other product characteristics are identical throughout the entire Ellansé™ family. It is up to you, in conjunction with your aesthetic practitioner, to choose how long you would like to enjoy renewed youth – from 12 months (Ellansé™-S), up to more than four years (Ellansé™-E).

The cosmetic results are soft and natural looking, and feel like your own skin. None of this would be relevant though, without safety data to reassure you, the patient, and the medical aesthetic world. Fortunately the Ellansé™ family comes with extensive testing and safety data.

All components of the range posses an excellent and proven safety biocompatibility profile. This is proven through decades of extensive documented evidence from scientific literature and test results. All components have been used successfully in numerous CE-marked and FDA-approved commercial bioresorbable medical devices over several decades worldwide.

So if you’re considering dermal fillers and you fancy trying something a bit different, why not ask your aesthetic practitioner about Ellansé™.

CS&AG