Soft tissue filler treatments have revolutionized the practice of aesthetic medicine. Physicians performed over 2.3 million filler procedures (mostly facial) in the United States in 2014.1 For these procedures, 78 percent used hyaluronic acid (HA)-based injections, 11 percent used calcium hydroxyapatite/carboxymethyl cellulose (CaHA/CMC) fillers and the remaining 11 percent used other materials (e.g., poly-L-lactic acid)
Usually, aesthetics deals with how you look and not how you feel. However, in the podiatric world, painful feet can affect your happiness, ability to work at a job, shoe selection, job performance, financial status, quality of life, ability to walk, stability, fall probability, and weight loss results.
In some patients with insensate feet, such as patients with diabetes, the loss of soft tissue padding on the plantar aspect of the feet can have more dire consequences with the development of an ulceration that may lead to amputation. While it is necessary for these patients to wear shoes with proper inserts to help recreate the needed padding, we also know patients do not always wear the special shoes and are sometimes unable to get the shoes due to cost or insurance. Coupled with a loss of sensation are mechanical abnormalities such as flat feet and cavus feet, which may increase the pressure in different areas.
Dermal fillers for foot cushioning can last around to 6 – 10 months. They will slowly break down to be naturally absorbed by the body over time. Some dermal fillers actually stimulate new collagen formation. Even as the filler breaks down, the thickness of tissue has increased. This means the effects can last a maximum of two years in the best case scenario.
