Non-surgical Facelift

As we age, our skin deteriorates and is more prone to develop wrinkles due to muscle action. Also, facial bony structure changes it's shape. Zygoma (cheek bone) becomes less prominent, and facial subcutaneous fat shrinks. In effect, face deflates with advancing age. The mid-face fat pad, no-longer propped-up by the cheek bone, descends toward lips resulting in prominent naso-labial folds. This also causes exposure of infra-orbital fat pads ("bags under the eyes"). Further atrophy of subcutaneous fat and mandible (jaw bone), as well as increasing laxity of the skin, produce jowls (lax skin fold along the jaw line). Can youthful appearance be restored without a face lift? In many instances, the answer is "yes, with help of soft tissue fillers and BOTOX ®".

Soft tissue fillers are substances that can be safely injected under the skin and along the shrinking facial bones and under wrinkles. This restores the lost volume, effectively "re-inflating" the face, and smoothing-out folds and wrinkles of the aging skin. Some of these fillers also stimulate your own collagen production in dermis (deep skin layer), thus helping to maintain skin's youthful turgidity.

BOTOX ® is often used in conjunction with fillers in order to selectively relax the wrinkle-causing muscles for a period of 3-4 months, thus helping maintain the smoothing effect.

The discomfort involved with injections of BOTOX ® and fillers is minimal, as these procedures are accomplished with use of very fine needles, similar in caliber to those used in acupuncture. These procedures do not usually result in much downtime, and are often called "lunch time procedures"

 

Courtesy of Dr. Pinkhasik, Richmond, BC

Here, filler material  called Radiesse was injected into Zygomatic (cheekbone) areas, Maxillary areas (under eyes), Naso-labial folds, Marionette lines (at corners of mouth, and chin. Total 4 syringes of Radiesse were used.