jrod wrote: Has anyone who had
Ellanse 3-4 years ago seen any loss of
Girth? I haven't heard of a single report.
They actually had 4 Versions of
Ellanse and ended up getting rid of their shorter-length (I think it was 1-Year & 2-Year) versions because too many patients were reporting filler retention well beyond the manufacturer's projection. This might sound great if you have it in your penis, but not so much if you have it in your face, and as you age, the filler remains, and while maybe not noticeable to most, definitely noticeable to the patient who was already compelled to inject facial fillers in the first place.
The thinking right now is all about the collagen. There are collagen of the skin, joints, bone marrow, and many other places, it's really remarkable how common (and essential) collagen is to our bodies. Well (and don't cite this, I'm merely relaying musings of some Doctors and the Manufacturer as nothing has been clinically set in stone, at least that I know of), it appears the same kind of collagen produced with
PMMA seems to be the same kind of collagen made with
Ellanse. The idea was that the
PCL particles in
Ellanse would eventually break down but would last a bit longer than similar collagen-inducing particles like the ones found in
Radiesse, making it a more attractive alternative for those who preferred longer lasting alternatives.
It seems as though the
PCL may have very well dissipated, but that
PMMA-type collagen in that kind of dense abundance lasts considerably longer, in spite of the absence of the
PCL. This is a "shrug the shoulder" moment because well,
Ellanse hasn't been around for a while, heck it hasn't even cleared FDA Approval yet (no doubt uncertainties about its longevity probably drags the process). I should stress that I don't think that designates it as dangerous, and I'd go as far as saying its safety profile ought to be on par with
PMMA since they effectively work on the same mechanism: biocompatible microspheres suspended in some kind of gel carrier injected into a layer of skin in order to increase volume; only difference is that the
PCL eventually gets removed whereas the
PMMA particles stay with you forever.
It is presently unknown how long it takes for this amount of concentration of
PMMA-like collagen will take to lose size. If you really think about it,
Ellanse was made for the face, we're talking like maybe 3-4 cc's at most? The penis contains easily 10x that over the course of 1-3 sessions, which means there is a richer abundance of elastin, connective tissue, and vascularity, likely keeping the collagen going. In other words, this is uncharted territory, although fortunately there is nothing to indicate there is anything to be concerned about, at least not much different from most other fillers. Heck, for penis guys, it's awesome news in my opinion, but if you were a facial patient and got it with the promise of 1-2 years, yea... you have a right to be upset.
In a nutshell, at least as far as I know, it should be regarded as a LONG LONG TERM filler at present time. I'll reach out to my
Ellanse providers and see if I can find out any updates. I'm also finding varying degrees of half-life's of different collagen types and they all appear to be rather long (many years), hopefully I can get this answered from an
Ellanse provider as well.
