If you’re like a lot of us, you probably have a standard beauty routine that helps to maintain your youthful appearance, especially to protect yourself from the aging impact of the summer sun. Daily moisturizing, sunscreen and avoiding too much sun, plus a facial at the end of the season has always worked to keep you from looking your age before. So why isn’t it working now? And what can you do instead?
Why “the Usual” Stops Working
All your usual anti-aging treatments have one thing in common: they work on the skin. Whether we’re talking about daily moisturizing or your seasonal facial, the goal is to care for your skin. Exfoliation, lotions, and creams, all work on the skin. Even if you’re getting a fractional laser peel (like Fraxel) or a tightening treatment like Thermage, these treatments work on the skin.
And if you are getting facial fillers or BOTOX ® Cosmetic injections, these work just below the skin. Fillers try to replace volume lost in the face, while BOTOX ® is attempting to relax muscles that are habitually contracting to cause wrinkles.
But some signs of facial aging come from deeper than these treatments can reach. Your teeth and your skeleton change with age, and when these changes are significant they can’t be counteracted with superficial treatments.
You will begin to notice that your jowls are growing despite the fact that your weight is under control. You might run more miles, spend more time on the elliptical, or join another fitness class, but the problem isn’t that you’re gaining weight, it’s that you’re losing tooth and bone. Folds and wrinkles around your mouth can be due to there being less volume for the same amount of skin. And even your growing crow’s feet can be related to the fact that now your facial muscles have to work harder to elevate your low facial tissues.
A Facelift Might not Be the Best Approach
As you notice these maintenance procedures aren’t working, you might think that a facelift is your best idea for restoring a more youthful appearance. But that’s not always the case, because a facelift shares the same problem as all the above procedures: it mostly works on your skin, too–especially a mini-facelift.
In a facelift, a plastic surgeon is trying to smooth out skin wrinkles, but without restoring any of the lost volume that led to a lot of the wrinkles themselves. To do this, a surgeon cuts away some of your skin as if it were excess, then they stretch the remaining skin over your face. This may get rid of the wrinkles, but it may also change your facial appearance. Even if your surgeon does a good job and avoids overstretching your skin, they are stretching the skin over changed bones and teeth, so you might not look like you anymore.
How a Nonsurgical Facelift Makes a Difference
A nonsurgical facelift, on the other hand, works much deeper than your skin. It restores volume lost as a result of worn, damaged, or missing teeth. This re-establishes your face’s youthful proportion, and, with proper maintenance of your skin, you can enjoy a much younger appearance that looks more like yourself.
Want to learn what a nonsurgical facelift can do for you? Please call (843) 706-2999 for an appointment with a Hilton Head cosmetic dentist at Beyond Exceptional Dentistry.
