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About 2 years ago, I had one of those “AHA” moments when I saw a physician from France demonstrate the use of blunt cannulas for injecting dermal fillers.  Since then, I have hardly used the traditional needle method for fillers and my patients love it.  I have become one of the strongest advocates of this technique, and it has revolutionized my thoughts about fillers.

Blunt cannulas have a rounded tip and are very flexible.  The advantages are:

1. The bruising and swelling post procedure are dramatically reduced.  So you don’t have the social downtime after having your lips done (which can be up to 2 weeks).  Blood vessels bounce off the tip and are not injured as easily with the cannulas.
2. Procedural discomfort is much improved in most areas.
3. With only 2 entrance “pokes”, I can enhance the lips, vs. at least 10 pokes using needles.
4. Overall time of procedures are significantly reduced.  Because I’m not using topical anesthesia in most cases, the total time to have your smile lines injected can be only a few minutes.  Under eye injections are the same.  In and out of the office more quickly and then go to lunch.
5. The risk of a vascular catastrophe is almost eliminated because you can’t enter a vessel with a blunt cannula.  You can still compress a vessel, but this is a much easier problem to deal with than an intravascular injection.  So BLUNT CANNULAS ARE A MUCH SAFER WAY TO INJECT DERMAL FILLERS.
6. I can inject the upper lip lines, lips, nasolabial folds, marrionette lines, and lower cheek, all through the same entrance site.
7. Tear trough injections can be done deep to the muscle to avoid the filler from showing (“Tindel Effect”)
8. I can use the cannulas for all fillers except Sculptra.

My YouTube videos with blunt cannulas:  http://www.youtube.com/user/StevenFWeinerFacial?feature=guide

The only area which I might use a needle to inject filler now is along the vermilion border of the lips and for superficial fine lines or scars.

When choosing a physician for filler, technique makes a world of difference…ask my patients.