Vampire Fillers are Invading Cosmetic Medicine

Clinical research in plastic surgery has been on the lookout for advancements in facial fillers to add to our compliment in facial rejuvenation. Platelet rich plasma, or PRP, is one such filler which is made from a sample of the patient’s own blood. Early in its investigation, it has become dubbed the ‘vampire filler’. PRP is actually a product developed for orthopedics and approved by the FDA as an injection to promote healing. Use as a facial filler is ‘off-label’, meaning it is not accepted yet as safe and effective as a filler, but can be used in a well informed patient, if a physician’s professional judgment supports the intended use. It appears since Ann Rice reintroduced America to vampires of a romantic sort, and the teen age group followed with the hugely popular Twilight series, it has been love at first bite. Marketing genius combined with branding and trademarks have turned the ‘vampire filler’ into the “vampire face lift”, a name patented in 2010 pushing the interest in PRP fillers to the top of Google searches. Many practices now can offer the Vampire FaceLift just by watching an online tutorial, and paying a monthly licensing fee to use the name. The Vampire FaceLift was demystified to us by a recent report of the story in Plastic Surgery News, our ASPS trade magazine. The procedure is in essence not really a facelift after all, but a combination of an HA filler such as Juvederm, filling around it with a PRP product such as Selphyl to add significant volume to the face. As with fillers we currently use today, volume can provide a short term fix and many patients stay with it until they are ready for facelift surgery to set things straight longer term. As plastic surgeons, we take pride in thorough training, and treatments based on the best medical evidence. We doubt we will ever see the complete end of vampires, though with knowledge and an understanding of just what the vampires are up to, perhaps we can put on a little garlic and protect ourselves from misinformation or a love affair gone wrong.