Los Angeles, Dec. 10, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Assistant Clinical Professor of Dermatology at UCLA Douglas Hamilton, M.D. is among the select physicians to offer the first FDA-approved filler for the treatment of acne scars. Bellafill (formerly Artefill) is injected beneath the acne scar to raise the skin by inducing the development of the patient's own skin collagen. Unlike other popular fillers, such as Restylane and Juvederm, which begin to wear off the moment they are injected, Bellafill offers patients a permanent solution that improves over time.
Dr. Hamilton, who treats patients at both his Beverly Hills and Woodland Hills, California offices, acted as lead investigator in the FDA trials that first obtained approval for the use of Bellafill/Artefill in the country. Additionally, he was the only U.S. dermatologist invited to appear on behalf of the manufacturer at the FDA approval meeting in Maryland.
"The improvement is seen immediately and most scars become virtually undetectable," said Dr. Hamilton. "Then over a period of about three months, the temporary cow collagen in Bellafill is gradually replaced by an equal volume of the patient's own natural collagen. This is due to the presence of a collagen stimulant (PMMA) present in the filler. I recommend a second treatment at no charge be performed at three months after the first to perfect the result."
The embarrassment and blight of acne scarring is not a new phenomenon. Prior treatments have included deep dermabrasion sanding, which produces bleeding and scabbing of the skin, and in the 1990s, laser resurfacing with carbon dioxide and erbium lasers were also popular. In addition to providing only moderate results, all of these treatments yielded a downtime for healing of seven to 10 days, as well as possible complications of color loss. Though more recently the Fraxel laser seemed a promising solution to acne scars, many patients' skin remained resistant.
"Bellafill is, in fact, a biostimulant, which means patients' scarring will continue to improve over the next couple of years," said Dr. Hamilton, who not only treated the first U.S. patients with this product, but also published the first medical journal article about the results. "Many patients do not require any further treatments after the first two. However, the placement of this product must be precise; problems can arise from injections administered by inexperienced physicians."
The requirement for training and expertise exceeds that needed with other fillers and for that reason, Bellafill is generally only performed by highly experienced physicians. Dr. Hamilton was one of the authors of a medical journal publication assessing the duration of Bellafill at five years after treatment and was the only investigator to perform a 12 year assessment for Suneva: both of these were in the treatment of expression lines/wrinkles.
"Our experience in both the treatment of wrinkles and acne scars plainly shows that the effects of Bellafill are permanent, though the FDA apparently has a much longer timeframe requirement than 12 years to allow the term 'permanent' to be used in marketing," said Dr. Hamilton. "This is a wonderful advance in cosmetic medicine that was developed by the brilliant German plastic surgeon, Gottfried Lemperle, whom I am proud to call a friend. It is not designed for use in OMG Spa: this is real medicine doing what we in medicine were called to do, i.e., make people feel and look better."
For more information or to schedule an appointment with Dr. Hamilton, please visit drhamilton.com or call (310) 275-6400.