Over time, skin loses its youthful appearance. This natural ageing process is often accelerated by:
- Hereditary factors
- Sun exposure
- Cigarette smoking
- Chickenpox and acne
The visible results are superficial blemishes – broken capillaries, freckles (lentigos), and keratoses (dry spots), scars, fine wrinkles and deep furrows.
Rejuvenation of facial skin can be achieved in a number of different ways.
Antiageing creams are applied to the face, neck and hands long term. These may contain:
Fillers (implants) can be injected under the skin to disguise crows' feet lines, whistle lines and some scars. These include:
Resurfacing refers to surgical or laser procedures that take off the top layer of skin, smoothing it out.
- Skin needling
- Chemical peels
- Dermabrasion
- Ablative laser resurfacing
- Nonablative resurfacing: e.g., fractional laser treatment, intense pulsed light and radiothermoplasty
Surgery is necessary to disguise or remove sagging and loose skin.
- The full facelift includes muscle/facial tightening for jowls
- Neck lift for loose skin and muscles of the neck
- Temporal lift or endoscopic forehead lift for sagging of the forehead and eyebrow
- Blepharoplasty to remove baggy eyelids.
Botulinum toxin is used to paralyse overactive muscles of facial expression, especially in the central forehead and crow's feet.
Facial capillaries can be removed using a vascular laser or intense pulsed light
Brown spots can be removed using pigment lasers or intense pulsed light.