Injectables
Sculptra® in North Spokane the long game
Sculptra prompts your own body to build collagen, which is why the result arrives over months instead of on the day.
What Sculptra actually does.
Sculptra is poly-L-lactic acid. The way Liz explains it, the molecule is too large for your body to digest and be rid of, so your immune system recognizes it, surrounds it, and then cannot take it away. What it brings along instead are fibroblasts, and fibroblasts are the cells that build collagen and elastin. Think of fibroblasts as the construction workers and Sculptra as the building material. That is the whole mechanism. The firmness you end up with is yours.
Sculptra will not clear brown spots or sun damage. What it changes is elasticity, so skin that has gone lax gets firmer where it was injected.
“Sculptra is absolutely delayed gratification. It’s the long game, because it takes your body time to make collagen.”
Liz Gilroy, ARNP
- What it is
- Poly-L-lactic acid, which prompts your own collagen
- First change
- Around two to three months
- Best results
- Two to three months on average, sometimes up to six, depending on how many sessions you have and how your body responds
- What it treats
- Volume loss, elasticity and firmness, not the surface of the skin
- Downtime
- Bruising is possible
- Aftercare
- Massage five minutes, five times a day, for five days
Who it suits.
There are not many treatments Liz says yes to this readily. Her view is that almost anyone, at almost any age, has something to gain from Sculptra, because what it builds is collagen and all of us are losing that.
The exceptions have to do with timing. If you have had a vaccine within two weeks of your appointment, COVID and influenza included, or you have been on a course of antibiotics or had a dental procedure in that window, she will move you to a later date.
“I absolutely love Sculptra. Once somebody does it, they love it, because it’s natural and you can tell the difference in both the volume in your face and the quality of your skin.”
Liz Gilroy, ARNP
How the appointment goes.
You start with a consultation
Liz looks at where your skin has lost firmness and tells you what Sculptra will and will not do about it. She will also tell you how long that takes, because people underestimate it.
It feels similar to Botox
That is her own comparison. No more painful than a Botox injection, and bruising is the side effect most people get.
Then you massage it, five by five by five
Five minutes, five times a day, for five days. Liz says plainly that nobody has proven this works, but it doesn’t do any harm. The thinking behind it is that it keeps the product evenly spread through the area it went into.
Hands off, and no makeup on the day
Leave the injected area alone, skip makeup until the next day, and give alcohol five to seven days. It is inflammatory, and inflammation works against what you just paid for.
Then you wait, and that is the point
Your body is making collagen on its own schedule. Two to three months is the usual wait for the best of it, sometimes longer. Nothing has gone wrong at week three.
What it costs.
Sculptra is priced by the vial, and how many vials you need depends on how much firmness there is to rebuild. Most people have more than one session, spread out so the collagen has time to arrive between them. You will get the number of vials, the number of sessions and the total at your consultation, before anything is booked.
What people ask.
Liz puts it at about the same as a Botox injection. Not nothing, and over quickly.
Two to three months on average for the best of it, and sometimes as long as six, depending on how many sessions you have. If you want something you can see next week, Sculptra is the wrong treatment and Liz will tell you so.
Filler replaces volume on the day you have it. Sculptra asks your own body to build collagen, so it arrives over months and the firmness it leaves behind is yours. They solve different problems, and plenty of people end up having both.
Not the surface of it. Sculptra will not clear brown spots or sun damage. What it changes is elasticity: where your skin has gone lax, the collagen it builds makes that area firmer.
Timing, mostly. If you have had a vaccine, COVID and influenza included, or been on antibiotics or had a dental procedure within two weeks of your appointment, Liz will move you to a later date. Beyond that she rarely tells anyone no, because almost anyone at almost any age has collagen to gain.
Hands off the area, no makeup on the day, and the massage: five minutes, five times a day, for five days. Liz is straight about that one. Nobody has proven it works, but it doesn’t do any harm, and the thinking is that it keeps the product evenly spread. Alcohol is worth skipping for five to seven days.
Book with Liz Gilroy, ARNP.
New patients start with a consultation. You’ll hear what we recommend, what it costs, and whether we think you need it at all.
