Facial Enhancement
How does aging affect the face?
As we age, sagging of the facial skin occurs slowly over the years due to the prolonged effect of gravity. Skin slowly loses its elasticity due to a decrease in the supportive components of our skin including elastin fibers, collagen fibers, and hyaluronic acid which degrade faster than they are rebuilt. As a result, fine lines and wrinkles appear on the forehead, chin, around the eyes and near the lips. Loss of underlying fat also occurs on the face below the eyes, upper eyelids, cheeks, lips and temples leading to a hollow look below the eyes and the cheeks appearing less full.
What are nonsurgical facial enhancements?
Nonsurgical facial enhancements are non-invasive procedures that can provide the same rejuvenated younger look as surgical procedures with less or no recovery time and at less cost.
Nonsurgical facial enhancement can remove wrinkles and fine lines, reduce scars, enhance the shape of the lips, improve contour by filling shallow areas on the cheeks and below the eyes using dermal fillers or skin resurfacing techniques.
There are a wide range of procedures that can improve your appearance:
Dermal fillers: These are injected into the treatment areas to give fullness and fill the creases. Autologous fat, collagen, hyaluronic acid, calcium hydroxylapatite, poly-lactic acid or polymethylmethacrylate can be used as dermal fillers for a nonsurgical facelift. Anti-wrinkle treatment given along with dermal filler treatment enhances the results of the non-surgical facial enhancement.
Skin resurfacing: This approach involves using laser, intense pulsed light, dermabrasion or chemicals to induce injury to different layers of the skin which leads to the formation of newer, healthier, younger, tighter, smoother and more radiant skin as it heals.
- Chemical peel and dermabrasion involves injury to the epidermis or outermost layer of the skin which on healing creates new smoother skin.
- Laser or intense pulsed light is used to produce heat in the dermis (the layer below the epidermis) causing damage and leaving the outermost epidermis untouched. This damage induces the production of more collagen in the dermal layer rejuvenating the skin.
Lip enhancement: Lip enhancement enhances the contour, definition and shape of your lips. It is used to plump up thin lips or to redefine the lost shape and fullness of the lips because of ageing. It also removes fine vertical lines above and below the lips which occur as you age and are called as smoker’s lines, lifts the drooping corners of the mouth and prevents lipstick from bleeding. Treatment is performed under local anesthesia. The lip is injected with dermal filler using a fine disposable sterile needle. Temporary bruising and swelling in the lip area may occur after the procedure which subsides within few days. The results usually last for 6 months to 8 months.
Results of the nonsurgical facial enhancement are temporary and last for 6 months to one year. The procedure needs to be repeated to maintain the effect. It is a good alternative to a surgical facelift procedure until the removal of the loose facial skin becomes necessary to have a younger look. Your cosmetic surgeon will assess your case individually and suggest one or a combination of procedures to achieve the desired results.