FILLER MIGRATION?! Is it real and how we avoid it.

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]I get a lot of questions about filler migration. Is it real?

[00:00:04]And the short answer is yes, fillers can migrate, especially if you put a bolus of filler under the skin to push up a wrinkle, the filler will eventually move over time. In fact, when we used to inject lips in the beginning, we used to tell patients that the filler dissolves after 6 months because after 6 months it gets deflated and the filler looks like it dissolved away. But what really happens is that the fillers are moving away, migrating away from where you injected and where does it go? Usually, gravity pulls it down to the lower face and then over time, if you keep injecting, it's going to start to look weird and you're going to start to look bottom heavy and your skin's going to look funny because the filler accumulates in certain spots. So, how do we prevent that? Well, there are techniques that we use to prevent filler migration so that we can use fillers to create the results we want beautifully without having these unwanted results. I do two things. One, we you can use the hyperdilute technique where we thin out the fillers and then put it very superficially into the skin rather than under the skin. This way, the filler, instead of migrating away, it spreads into the skin and creates a nice attraction of moisture to the skin to keep collagen stimulated. That way it lasts longer and you get a much more natural result. The other way that we can keep fillers from migrating is to use the Y lift technique where we put it on the bone under the periosteum, which is a covering of the bone, so that when we tuck it in under there, it acts like an implant. It doesn't move. It stays there for years. So, these are the techniques that we can use to help the fillers stay stay where we put it and last for years.