The Aesthetic Eye

The importance of an aesthetic eye when doing facial injectables.

People often ask how one learns how to inject the face for a natural look. Using the proper injection technique is of utmost necessity, but also learning to have an aesthetic eye is an important component of achieving a natural, refreshed look.

Having an aesthetic eye means being able to look at the face in a global fashion instead of looking at just the area that the patient wants treated. That means when I look at someone’s face, I am assessing from the top of the forehead to the bottom of the chin.  I look for overall face shape, angles, shadows, contours, wrinkles, valleys and smooth areas.

This is not necessarily an advanced technique; it is something that even beginners and expert injectors both use.

Facial contouring is about balance, angles, and ovals on the face. As an advanced injector, I make sure to pay attention to the forehead, cheeks, lips, jaw line in order to achieve a symmetric and attractive results. It is unnatural for the face to have no contour or valleys.

Sometimes that means placing more dermal filler on one side of the face than the other. Or -sometimes a patient has been over-injected and has the dreaded “pillow face” and needs some of the product dissolved.

I like to work back-and-forth on the face and check my work as I go about injecting. Never use half of your syringe for one half of the face, because inevitably, you will have to tweak one side more than the other.

Marking the face prior to injecting will help with proper placement of your dermal filler. I like to use a white make up pencil.

As always, communication with your patient is always essential! Ask them what their desires and goals are, take a thorough history, and set realistic, achievable goals.