I noticed in a recent article that you are injecting a combination of Sculptra & Radiesse in your patients. As a recipient of Sculptra for over 4 years, and as my cosmetic surgeons first & few Sculptra patients, my doctor has never combined these two drugs for me. He probably doesn't know about this combination. Please tell me about the benefits and results of combining these two drugs so that I may inform my doctor. Would you be willing to speak to him regarding this issue? Thank you for your response!!!

Hello, and thanks for posting.

I like using these fillers in combination because Radiesse works right away, but does not last as long as one would like. Sculptra has a delayed onset of action, but seems to last longer. By combining them, one can get the best of both worlds in my opinion. I have not seen any problems using this combined approach in over 100 patients thus far. These are not permanent products and require a series of treatments to achieve optimal correction, and then periodic treatments to maintain the benefit.

Some doctors hate the idea of combining products in one treatment session because if something goes wrong, then you don't know which agent was responsible. My view is that both of these agents are very well tolerated and significant complications are rare. Yes, small nodules or lumps may occur with either agent, but with proper injection of the product under the dermis, these nodules are not visible.

Depending on the needs of the individual patient, I may start with combination therapy and then just select one agent for follow-up treatment. Someone who needs more facial volume might be better treated with Sculptra. Deeper lines appear to respond better to Radiesse. But again, for patients who have moderate to severe facial lipoatrophy combination treatment works faster and appears to last longer than using single agent treatment.

I hope that this information helps and best of luck to you!