Sarah Patel is the operating partner at Opulence Chicago, a medical spa in the West Loop, and she came to aesthetics from neurointerventional radiology a decade ago. She explains biostimulators the way you'd want a friend to: filler is the frosting, Sculptra is the cake, and most people who look overfilled needed the cake.

We cover:

• What a biostimulator actually is, and why your own body does the work
• Why Sculptra has been around since the 1990s and was discovered on HIV patients
• How Radiesse differs, and when it behaves like a filler instead
• Why the overfilled look is usually a skin problem being treated with volume
• What GLP-1 weight loss is doing to faces, and why she says everyone needs Sculptra eventually
• The appointment start to finish, and why she mixes it in front of you
• Numbing: topical and lidocaine, and why she does not use nerve blocks for this
• The massage protocol, and why five minutes five times a day for five days turned out to be overkill
• Whether the one vial per decade of life rule holds up
• How long results last, and why she compares it to a 401k
• Real pricing: $700 to $900 a vial, and $1,500 to $1,800 for two
• Who is not a candidate, and the two areas she will never inject

Find Sarah:

Website: https://www.opulencechicago.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/opulence_chicago
630 W Lake St, Suite 3, Chicago

Find a Sculptra provider near you: https://getclearbeauty.com/sculptra/?utm_source=podcast