With more treatment options available today than ever before, it has never been easier to treat your wrinkles. Many of the latest treatments now available are minimally invasive and don’t require surgery. Many of these modern procedures feature little downtime, quick results, and minimal risk.
As we age, our skin begins to lose the elasticity that once gave it its shape. Wrinkles develop, cheeks hollow, and eyebrows droop. These signs of aging can make us look more tired, worried, and older than we are. Dead cells accumulate on the upper layers of the skin, creating a dull, uneven complexion.
Each of these aging symptoms is treatable with non-surgical cosmetic facial treatments. No one solution fits every problem or every person, but there is a solution for virtually everything and everyone.
We know that it can be overwhelming to comb through the vast array of treatment options available today. Rather than exploring countless technical terms or go into detail on every treatment available, we decided to simply show you how to address a variety of common aging symptoms you may face.
Hide Under- Eye Bags
To treat bags under your eyes, the most popular treatments are acid fillers like Belotero Balance, Juvederm and Restylane. These fillers utilize a sugar which naturally occurs in your body. They are now the gold standard of nonsurgical under-eye bag treatment options and, depending on your anatomy, can rival results obtained from under-eye surgery (lower blepharoplasty).
Each of these treatments replaces the naturally occurring sugar and protein matrix in your skin that is lost during aging, thereby returning volume, firmness, and hydration to the skin area treated. Effects from each treatment last about 6-12 months, or can even longer in some individuals.
To determine whether nonsurgical or surgical options are best for your particular under-eye bags, consult your facial plastic surgeon.
Treat Blotchy Skin
The best solution to treat blotchy skin caused by aging tends to be laser treatment. There are many different types of lasers, and the choice of which laser treatment to use is best left to your doctor. The laser treatment that is best for your friend may not be the best option for you and vice versa. For this reason, it is best not to request a specific one.
Laser treatments for blotchy skin work by removing outer layers of skin with tightly controlled focused light beams. These lasers promote collagen production, zap age spots and broken capillaries, and smooth wrinkles.
To achieve your desired results with lasers, you may need two or three treatment sessions a month or so apart. There may be some recovery time involved if you are treating deep or severe blotches.
Eliminate Smile Lines
There is a new treatment available for smile line treatment called Juvederm Volumina. This injection treatment targets muscle tissue along your jawbone, cheekbones, and temples. It instantly lifts and tightens several areas at once. A nice feature of this product is that it is reversible with an inject-able enzyme which dissolves the filler product. This allows you to dial the results back down if you overdo it at first, or to change your mind completely after the treatment. This treatment is costlier than some of the treatments above, but the effects last for over two years, making the added cost well worthwhile.
Reverse Age Spots
The overall solution to eliminating aging spots is to remove dead skin cells from the upper layers of your skin. Two treatment options work well to achieve this: microdermabrasion and chemical peels.
Microdermabrasion incorporates little crystals to smooth and buff the surface of the skin, promoting the growth of new skin cells.
Chemical peels remove the dead skin cells using a special solution applied to the surface of the skin. The solution causes the upper layers of the skin to peel so that the dead skin cells come off.
Both treatments work to remove dead skin cells and stimulate new growth. Chemical peels can work in tandem with microdermabrasion in order to achieve better results in cases where the skin damage is particularly bad. To achieve total elimination of all aging spots, you will also need one or two laser treatments.
Reverse Double Chin or Jowls
The latest in double chin and jowl treatment is Ultherapy, which is a sonic treatment that uses sound waves combined with focused heat to penetrate the surface of the skin and stimulate collagen production. A related treatment is Thermage, which radio-frequency heat energy to achieve similar results to Ultherapy.
After treatment, your skin should begin to tighten within about a week and continue to do so gradually for the next six months. It is important to note that many patients require pain medication with Ultherapy. You can, however, expect a lack of downtime and quick results, with considerably fewer side effects than with older laser treatment technologies.
Treat Crow’s Feet or Furrowed Brow
Neurotoxin injections like Botox® or Xeomin are the most popular way to treat crow’s feet or furrowed brows. Each of these products is a brand name of highly purified botulinum toxin.
The injections work by paralyzing tiny muscles in the face responsible for creating the expression lines that come with aging. They can help with lines in the neck as well.
Results should appear in a few days, and no downtime is involved. Expect to need maintenance injections every 3-4 months to preserve the effects of the treatment.
What About Medical Spa Treatments?
There are many medical spas in existence, providing a wide variety of treatment options with varying levels of expertise and success. Keep in mind that if you decide to trust your facial cosmetic treatments and overall health and well-being to a medical spa, you will want to ensure they have the experience and expertise to perform all the treatments properly. You’ll also want to check that they have at least two years of experience performing the specific treatment you are interested in.
At our practice, you can expect to receive only the best in state-of-the-art facial cosmetic treatments, delivered to the utmost standard of quality by experienced professionals who are well versed in the treatments they provide. Call us today for more information!