Non-Surgical · Poly-L-Lactic Acid

Sculptra

A collagen stimulator planned across a course of visits

Gangnam, Seoul | Board-certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Jonghwan Choi
KHIDI-registered for international patients · Apgujeong Rewind

Sculptra Sculptra Sculptra Sculptra Sculptra Sculptra Sculptra Sculptra 
Define

Sculptra

Sculptra: what a poly-L-lactic acid vial actually holds

The short answer

Sculptra is injectable poly-L-lactic acid. The vial arrives as a freeze-dried powder and is reconstituted with sterile water before it can be used. What goes into the face is a suspension of microparticles placed in the deep skin and the plane beneath it. Those particles break down over months while the surrounding tissue responds by laying down collagen, and that collagen is the volume a patient eventually sees.

Rewind's price sheet lists this product by the vial. The clinic has no Korean treatment page of its own for it, so anaesthesia, appointment length, session counts and intervals are absent from this page on purpose. Those are set by the doctor after examining you, and a number copied from a brochure would be a guess dressed up as a fact.

Patients usually arrive having read that Sculptra is a filler. It is not sold as one at Rewind and it does not behave like one. A hyaluronic-acid filler is volume in a syringe: the change is present the moment you sit up. A poly-L-lactic acid injection leaves behind material that asks your own dermis to build, and the building takes weeks. Anyone booking a treatment two weeks before a wedding needs to know that before the vial is opened.

There is a second confusion worth clearing early, because it decides which product you are actually being offered. Poly-L-lactic acid and poly-D,L-lactic acid are different preparations of the same family, and published side-by-side work has measured how differently they behave in the first weeks after injection. Sculptra belongs to the poly-L side of that line. The hybrid boosters on the same shelf at Rewind sit on the other side, so the doctor names a product only after deciding what your face needs.

Consultation room at Rewind Plastic Surgery, Apgujeong
Fig. 01 — The vial count is agreed in this room before any powder is reconstituted
Zones

Placement map

Where Sculptra is placed on a face that has lost volume

Poly-L-lactic acid has been used for facial volume restoration long enough to have an accepted placement map, and the published volumetric work sits behind it. The zones below are where the material is generally put to work. They are not a menu you choose from: the doctor marks what has actually deflated on your own face, then decides how much of each visit goes where.

zone 01
Temple and upper cheek
The hollow above the cheekbone that makes eyes read as sunken and shadows the upper face in photographs.
zone 02
Mid-face and anterior cheek
Flattening across the front of the cheek, the loss that shortens the band of light a young face carries there.
zone 03
Lower face and pre-jowl hollow
The dip in front of the jowl, where deflation squares off an outline that used to taper.
zone 04
General skin thickness
Thinned, crepey skin over the cheek and jaw, treated with wider distribution and smaller deposits.

Two areas stay off this map. The lips are not a placement site for this material, and the thin skin immediately around the eye is avoided. If those are the areas troubling you, a consultation will point you at something else on the clinic's injectable list.

Build

Mechanism

From powder to collagen: four stages of a Sculptra course

Most of this treatment happens when you are nowhere near the clinic. Knowing the four stages is what stops patients from judging the outcome on the wrong week and asking for more product before the first vial has finished its work.

01Preparation

The powder has to be reconstituted before it is anything

Sterile water is added and the suspension is left to stand so the particles disperse evenly. How much water is used changes how the material spreads once injected, and it is one of the few variables entirely in the injector's hands. This is preparation work, and it happens before you are in the chair.

02Placement

Small deposits across a plane, never a single bolus

The suspension is distributed through the deep dermis and the fat beneath it in many small amounts across the marked zone. A filler can be shaped by placing a bolus where a contour is missing. A biostimulator has to be spread, because what you are seeding is a tissue response across an area.

03Weeks 4–12

Volume arrives late, and it arrives as your own tissue

The particles are gradually broken down while collagen is deposited around them. Published histology of injectable poly-L-lactic acid has looked directly at how long that biostimulatory activity persists in treated tissue, and volumetric series have tracked the corresponding change in the face. The point both make is that the endpoint is months away from the appointment.

04The course

One session is rarely the whole plan

This material is conventionally given as a series with weeks between visits, and each session is judged against what the previous one produced. Rewind publishes no fixed number of sessions and no fixed interval for it, and this page will not invent either. The count is argued at the consultation, from your face and from what the first session actually did.

Dr. Jonghwan Choi discussing a treatment plan with a patient at Rewind
Fig. 02 — Stage four is a conversation, not a package sold at the front desk
Rewind

Judgement

How the number of Sculptra vials is decided here

Vial count is where a collagen stimulator becomes either a considered treatment or an expensive habit. Every extra vial is another charge on the same line of the price sheet, so the question of how many is worth asking out loud at the consultation, and worth getting a specific answer to.

01Deflation

The surgeon separates what has emptied from what has dropped

A face that has lost volume and a face that has descended look similar in a mirror and need opposite treatments. Dr. Choi operates on both kinds of face, so the assessment is made by someone who knows what a lift would achieve on yours. Adding stimulator volume to heavy, lax tissue makes the heaviness more obvious.

02Restraint

A conservative first session is a deliberate choice

Because the result of this product appears weeks later, anything overfilled at the first visit cannot be dissolved away the following morning the way a hyaluronic-acid filler can. Starting below what the face could take, then reassessing, is the safer arithmetic for the patient even though it is the slower sale for the clinic.

03Review

Someone has to look at the face again months later

A follow-up appointment is where the plan is corrected. The surgeon who chose the first vial count reviews what the tissue produced and decides whether a second session is warranted. Sometimes that decision is that no more product is needed, and patients are told so.

Dr. Jonghwan Choi, board-certified plastic surgeon and medical director of Rewind
Fig. 03 — One surgeon plans the course and reviews it, start to finish
Room

On the day

A Sculptra appointment at the Apgujeong clinic

Treatment floor at Rewind Plastic Surgery, Gangnam, Seoul

Fig. 04 — Treatment floor, Richro Building

Recovery area at Rewind Plastic Surgery

Fig. 05 — Where patients sit for a short while afterwards

The consultation comes first and the zones are marked while you watch. Ask to see the vial before it is prepared: sealed packaging opened in front of the patient is the only check any of us has that the product in the syringe is what the price sheet says it is, and the staff here expect that question rather than resenting it. This is done on the fourth and fifth floors of the Richro Building in Gangnam, Seoul, by appointment, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:00 to 19:00 and Saturday from 10:00 to 16:00.

Injectable poly-L-lactic acid
Reconstituted from powder before use
Deep dermal and subcutaneous placement
No incision and no suture
Course planned by Dr. Jonghwan Choi
Listed and quoted per vial

What this page does not do is reprint the promotional artwork. Clinical claims and approval badges printed on marketing material are not evidence a patient can check, and translating them into English would lend them a weight they have not earned. The product identity, the placement plane and the published literature are reproduced here; everything else waits for the consultation.

Record

Case photography

Sculptra photographs: the frames Rewind has not filled

Every case pair this clinic has released so far comes from surgery. Nothing has been released for this injectable. Filling the frames below with a stimulator result borrowed from elsewhere would tell you something untrue about Rewind, so they stay empty until the clinic photographs and consents a series of its own patients.

Sculptra — case pairs

BEFORE PHOTO
AFTER PHOTO
BEFOREAFTER
case — poly-L-lactic acid
Sculptra
Individual results may vary.
BEFORE PHOTO
AFTER PHOTO
BEFOREAFTER
case — poly-L-lactic acid
Sculptra
Individual results may vary.
BEFORE PHOTO
AFTER PHOTO
BEFOREAFTER
case — poly-L-lactic acid
Sculptra
Individual results may vary.
BEFORE PHOTO
AFTER PHOTO
BEFOREAFTER
case — poly-L-lactic acid
Sculptra
Individual results may vary.

A biostimulator is the hardest treatment in aesthetics to photograph fairly, because the interval decides the picture. When Rewind publishes pairs for this product they will be its own patients, shot at the same distance under the same light on both dates, uncropped, with consent on file and with the number of weeks between the two frames written on the card. No specific outcome can be promised from anyone else's photographs, and individual results may vary.

Rates

Pricing

Sculptra pricing per vial in Gangnam, Seoul

This product is quoted by the vial, so what a course costs follows two numbers the doctor gives you at consultation: vials per session, and sessions. The two rows underneath are the other collagen stimulators held at the same clinic, listed here because a patient weighing them up deserves all three figures in one place.

Sculptra — 1 vialPoly-L-lactic acid, reconstituted before the session
₩900,000
Olidia 365 — 1 vialComparison: the highest of the three PLLA strengths on the shelf
₩700,000
Juvelook Volume — 1 vialComparison: the hybrid vial, carried in hyaluronic acid
₩700,000

Rates shown are per vial and VAT is excluded from them, so the figure on your receipt will sit above the figure on this page. The numbing preparation used during the session is already inside the rate. Nothing about a multi-session course is quoted before the examination, and the quote given to you in the room is read from this same sheet.

Fit

Suitability

Who Sculptra suits, and the reasons it is declined

Usually a reasonable plan

  • A face that has emptied through temple and cheek while the skin envelope is still holding its shape
  • Patients in their late thirties onward who describe themselves as looking tired or drawn in photographs
  • Anyone prepared to return for a course and to be judged on the face months later
  • Skin that has thinned across the lower face, where a contour product alone would miss the complaint
  • Previous hyaluronic-acid filler that kept needing topping up in the same hollow

Reasons the doctor holds off

  • A wedding, a shoot or any fixed date inside a couple of months, since this material will still be working
  • Heavy, descended tissue with a blunted jaw line, where volume worsens the look and a lift is the real subject
  • Any history of a firm lump or late nodule after a biostimulator injection anywhere on the face
  • Lips, or the thin skin immediately around the eye, which are outside this product's placement map
  • Active acne or infection over the intended zone, pregnancy, breastfeeding, or recent filler in the same plane
After

Recovery

The days and the months after a Sculptra session

Downtime after this injection is short and the treatment itself is long, which is an awkward pairing and the reason most disappointment with collagen stimulators is really a disappointment about timing. The first week is about settling; the part you paid for shows up much later.

Day of
Swelling is not the result
The face can look fuller on the evening of the session from fluid and from the carrier. That look fades, and mistaking it for the outcome is the classic first-week error.
First days
The massage instruction
Self-massage of the treated zone has accompanied this material since it was introduced. Follow whatever the clinic tells you at the appointment, and keep sauna, hard exercise and alcohol out of the first day.
Weeks 4–12
The part that counts
Tissue responds and the face gradually firms. This is the stretch that feels like nothing is happening, and it is exactly when nothing should be added.
Longer term
A band, not a date
Rewind publishes no duration figure for this product. Published series on poly-L-lactic acid have followed patients for around two years, and your own band is discussed at review.

Injecting a biostimulator carries real risk and the honest version is worth reading twice. Swelling, bruising, redness and tenderness are common in the first days. Firm papules or late nodules in the treated plane are the complication this class of product is specifically followed for, and dilution, depth and volume therefore belong to the surgeon. Infection and vascular events are rare and serious. Increasing pain, blanching skin or any new lump should be reported to the clinic immediately, without waiting for the scheduled follow-up.

Doctor

Professional

At Rewind, one board-certified plastic surgeon carries every case — from the first consultation to the final follow-up. Because a face is a story, and a story deserves a single author.

Dr. Jonghwan Choi, board-certified plastic surgeonRewind,
Dr. Jonghwan Choi presenting at an academic session
Fig. 06 — Academic presentation, thread-lifting session

Rewind's Doctor

Dr. Jonghwan Choi Medical Director

One surgeon, from the first
consultation to the last follow-up.

A board-certified plastic surgeon devoted to anti-aging lifting — with the precision and restraint built through years of craniofacial practice.

Board-certified plastic surgeon (Plastic Surgery)
10 peer-reviewed publications
Medical Director, Rewind Plastic Surgery
Korean Society of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeons
Former chief director, Apgujeong Y&T Plastic Surgery
Korean Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery
J Craniofac Surg · JKMS · Arch Craniofac Surg
Korean Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association
Voices

Google Reviews

What our patients say.

G 5.0 ★★★★★ 12 Google reviews · Rewind Plastic Surgery, Apgujeong — live-synced from Google Business Profile

"Sample review card — at launch this section pulls the clinic's real Google reviews automatically, shown verbatim with the reviewer's initial and posting date."

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"Sample review card — reviews are never written or edited by the clinic; only what patients posted on Google appears here."

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Ask

Questions

Sculptra questions asked at the Gangnam consultation desk

What is actually injected during a Sculptra session?
Poly-L-lactic acid microparticles suspended in sterile water. The vial is supplied as a freeze-dried powder and has to be reconstituted before use, so preparation begins ahead of the appointment. The suspension is distributed in small amounts through the deep skin and the layer beneath it.
How many vials will my face need?
That number belongs to the examination. It depends on how much volume has gone, over how wide an area, and how much the surgeon is willing to place at a first sitting. Rewind quotes per vial, so you are told the arithmetic openly at the consultation and nothing is added afterwards without being agreed.
How quickly does anything become visible?
Fullness on the evening of the session comes from swelling and fluid and disappears within days. Real change follows the collagen response and is typically judged from around the second month onward, so review appointments are set well after the session.
How far apart are the sessions?
Poly-L-lactic acid is conventionally given as a series spaced by weeks, with each session judged against the result of the last. Rewind publishes no fixed interval for this product and this page will not invent one; the spacing is set by the doctor when the plan is made.
How long does the effect hold?
The clinic publishes no duration figure. Published series following poly-L-lactic acid have tracked patients for around two years, and histology work has examined how long the biostimulatory activity persists in treated tissue. A realistic band for your own face is discussed at review, and it cannot be promised in advance.
Is Sculptra a type of filler?
It is grouped separately at Rewind. A hyaluronic-acid filler adds contour in the chair and holds it until the gel breaks down. This material adds almost nothing on the day and leaves a stimulus that your own tissue answers over the following months. Both exist on the injectable list and they solve different problems.
What are the risks, and how common are nodules?
Swelling, bruising, redness and tenderness are usual in the first days. Firm papules and late nodules in the treated plane are the complication this product class is followed for and they are the reason dilution, depth and total volume are the surgeon's decisions. Infection and vascular events are rare and serious.
Can it be used under the eyes or in the lips?
No. The lips are outside the placement map for this material and the thin skin immediately around the eye is avoided. If those areas are your concern, the consultation will move to a different product; see dermal filler or Rejuran.
Sculptra or Juvelook — how does Rewind choose?
Broadly, by what the skin is missing. The hybrid vial carries hyaluronic acid alongside its polylactic-acid particles and is often used where surface quality is the complaint. This product is the older poly-L preparation and leans toward volume restored across a plane. Read Juvelook next, then let the examination decide.
What does one vial cost here?
The current list rate per vial is shown in the pricing section above, with VAT charged separately on top of it. Everything used during the session is counted inside that rate. A figure for a whole course is only given after the doctor has examined the area and said how many vials each visit needs.
Will I have to massage my face afterwards?
Self-massage of the treated area has accompanied this material since it came onto the market, and most protocols ask for it over the first days. Rewind gives you its own instruction at the appointment, and following that instruction, in preference to something read online, is part of keeping the material evenly distributed.
Who injects, and is the consultation available in English?
Dr. Jonghwan Choi, the medical director and a board-certified plastic surgeon, examines every patient and carries out the plan himself. Interpreter-assisted consultation is arranged for international patients and the clinic is KHIDI-registered for foreign patients.
Booking

Reservation

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Tell us what you are considering — we reply within one business day, in your language.

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Scientific evidence

Poly-L-lactic acid: what the volumetric literature reports

These five papers describe poly-L-lactic acid as a material: how it is characterised physically, where it has been placed for facial volume correction, how the volumetric change has been measured, and how it separates from the poly-D,L preparations sold alongside it. None of this work was carried out at Rewind Plastic Surgery or on patients treated here, none of it was funded by this clinic, and no finding in it forecasts what your own tissue will do.