Non-surgical treatment of wrinkles and furrows

What causes wrinkles and furrows? We all recognise facial lines and wrinkles when we see them and it is certainly true to say that we all have them or get them!  The older we get, the more we have and the deeper they become. Lovely young skin is certainly attractive but even youngsters don’t have perfectly smooth skin, even they have lines, usually present around the eyes and mouth. 

Different faces have different line patterns and different line quantities. All this adds to the interest and the character of a face.  As we get older, lines increase in number and depth, furrows develop and wrinkles appear. This differentiation between lines wrinkles and furrows helps me understand the root cause of a facial crease and develop treatment strategies.

The way and rate we age is significantly affected by inherited factors from your parent’s and family but environmental factors also have a very strong influence. Smoking, sunshine and general health having the greatest bearing.  Lines, wrinkles and furrows are all external features of ageing changes taking place not only in the skin but also within the facial soft tissues and to some degree also the facial skeleton.

As skin ages it thins and looses its elastic qualities, so it becomes less able to stretch, rebound and contour itself, over facial undulations and around facial movements.  This means that folds in your skin appearing during facial expressions intensify and no longer smooth out on resting, becoming permanent lines.  A crazy-paving type of wrinkling and crêpiness can also develop at rest as the ageing process increases. This sort of appearance can often occur even in those areas not so much involved in facial movement.

Relentless gravitational forces also have a long-term effect, dragging down the soft tissues and causing furrows at and around certain points where they are tethered deeply. Furrows are often seen at the junction between the cheek, mouth and chin. Facial muscles work hard to maintain the tissues in their original position becoming bigger and stronger, responding like all muscles do when worked hard. This in itself increases the tone of muscle and worsens those mimetic lines!

There is no one-root cause of wrinkles and no one anti-wrinkle treatment that can eradicate all the different types.  Diagnosing the root cause is important in deciding a treatment plan.  .  

What is the procedure for non-surgical treatment of wrinkles and furrows? Muscle inhibitors, such as Botox (Botulinum Toxin A), are excellent at treating mimetic lines and work by a controlled partial paralysis of facial muscles.  Dermal fillers can be used to plump out the skin or the immediate subcutaneous tissues to improve static lines but skin re-surfacing and rejuvenation may be required to complete the result. Addressing the furrows caused by descended fat pads or treating excess skin with laxity can be more difficult and may need, either re-positioning the fat pads, direct thermal stimulation or masking the edges with volumising injections.
Before any treatment regime is recommended, a full review of the causes of facial wrinkling should be performed. 

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