Wrinkles

What are wrinkles?

Wrinkles affect all people.  Young people tend to experience 'dynamic wrinkles'.  Dynamic wrinkles are wrinkles which appear with expression and facial movement.  Over time 'dynamic' wrinkles cause creases in the skin which remain even at rest (static wrinkles). In addition, our sleep posture can cause our faces to become creased. These are the lines that we tend to notice the most in the morning, and they tend to improve over the day.  Time passage can cause our collagen to degrade, and this process can cause the skin to lose its tone and take on a crepe-like appearance. The sun and smoking can speed up the destruction of collagen. The amount of wrinkling, and the cause of the wrinkle are both important considerations when deciding what treatment would be optimal for you. When you come to Hummingbird, our knowledgeable medical Estheticians will review your issues and help to guide you in your treatment decision path.

Treatments for Wrinkles?

There are several ways to address wrinkle issues.  Active treatments are: Botox, Fillers (i.e Restylane or Juvaderm), erbium laser resurfacing or combinations of these treatments.

Upper Face:

·         Botox is often the first choice for lines of the upper face. It is gentle wrinkle correction through relaxing the overactive facial expression muscles. Regular treatments with Botox are highly preventative of further wrinkle progression - a true and unique benefit. Botox works best on the dynamic facial lines (the ones that are exaggerated by expression). When there has been the development of a permanent line (a 'static' line - a line at rest), Botox is still the first treatment of choice to soften the problem movement.

·         A filler (such as Restylane or Juvaderm) would be used to help further soften the residual line.

Lower Face:

·         Fillers (Restylane, Perlane, Dermalive / Dermadeep) are used as a first choice for lines of the lower face. These fillers are made of bio-compatible gels called Hyaluronic acid. They are lab made copies of our natural hyaluronic acid; they do not come from animals. These fillers are used to plump up the wrinkle from below with their jello-like structure. They dissolve away into water over time. We use fillers in lines of the lower face, in the lip, and in the lines of the upper face (in addition to Botox).

·         In special situations Botox is used in the lower face to complement the fillers (i.e. to reduce the lip pucker lines, and the mouth-frown).

Full face:

·         The full face can be treated by means of laser resurfacing using the Erbium laser. In this 3-step treatment process, the top layers of wrinkled skin are whisked away by the vaporizing action of the laser. Fresh new skin replaces the older damaged skin leaving a longstanding improvement in the skin's appearance. This treatment is also used to soften moderate scarring. We recommend this treatment as a full face treatment. However, if our patient desires, the treatment can just be used on a trouble zone such as the mouth or eye area.

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