Can Restalyne Improve First Impressions?

Editor's note: If your spa is a medical spa or refers clients to a dermatologist or cosmetic surgeon, consider providing this information for clients who feel as if they need an advantage when going on job interviews, or any time a positive first impression is needed. Perhaps hyaluronic filler can provide the boost they need.

A recent study demonstrating that the treatment of nasolabial folds with Restalyne positively influences the first impression that an individual projects was published by Steven H. Dayan, MD, FACS and DeNova research in the November 2010 issue of Dermatologic Surgery, a leading dermatology journal. In a study, 20 patients received Restylane, the popular hyaluronic filler, to fill in the nasolabial folds that run from the side of the nose to the side of the mouth. Three months after treatment, study participants received a significantly higher first impression rating, including social skills, academic performance, attractiveness, success in dating, career performance, finance, athletics and relationships; leading to a more positive total on overall first impressions.

After the patients were treated, standardized before-and-after photos were then randomized to multiple-book binders. The random binders were then reviewed by more than 300 unknowing observers who were asked to make quick first-impression judgments of the people in the photograph purely based on appearance. The judging observers did not know any treatment was performed. They never saw the same person’s photo more than once. In total, more than 5,000 first impressions were recorded.

Findings revealed that the after-treatment photos of the patients four weeks following filler placed into their smile lines were rated to be more attractive and socially successful, as well as better at dating and in relationships. They were also judged to be academically superior and more successful athletically, financially and in the workplace. Overall, they were judged to just make a better first impression.

“These findings support what we have all thought anecdotally for some time now and may be one of the reasons we are seeing so many more people coming in requesting cosmetic treatments prior to a job interview,” says lead investigator Dayan, of the Chicago Center for Facial Plastic Surgery, clinical assistant professor of otolaryngology at University of Illinois at Chicago and adjunct professor at DePaul University in Chicago. “Making a more positive first impression can be critical to landing a new job.”

You only get one chance to make a first impression and an individual’s facial appearance has a profound influence on how he or she is first perceived by another person. The data shows that Restalyne has the potential for transformative results that significantly boost this first impression.

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