By Tiffany M. Darnold, MMS, PA-C, Couture Med Spa Oviedo
Don’t have a New Year’s Resolution yet? It’s not too late! Let’s set a goal to take better care of you, starting with your anti-aging journey. After all, you deserve it!
The Situation: Your Collagen Production is Declining
Before your first wrinkle is even visible, your body has already started its journey towards aging in your early 20s. Your collagen is decreasing at a rate of 1-2% per year, diminishing the support for your skin. Over the years, your once bright complexion will start to wrinkle and sag. Stress will also start to take its toll and your face will not only show your stressed mood or frustration but creases as the muscles contract and fold, just like folding a piece of paper.
That line (a.k.a. a wrinkle) can be hard to get out or fade. Also, major folds start to develop later in life as essential facial fat pads start to disappear allowing the skin to sag in the areas of the lower half of the face.
BUT THERE’S GOOD NEWS! There are ways to start preventing your wrinkles before they happen and even ways to help soften the appearance of wrinkles that are already visible.
First Step: Preventing Wrinkles
The first step in the fight against wrinkles is prevention. Start using retinol, retinoids, or Retin-A early in life to help skin turnover as well as to prevent and even start correcting wrinkles from collagen loss. Also, prevent wrinkles or even treat them in the forehead, between the brows (those pesky “elevens”), and next to the eyes ( crow’s feet) by using Botox or Dysport to reduce muscle movement and soften the creases which start to occur from our muscles contracting. We can even use Botox or Dysport to help with ‘bunny lines’ which occur across our nose. These wrinkles have developed over the years due to facial movement usually caused by stress, crying, smiling, and even squinting our eyes while we study or when the sun is too bright. Also, throwing sunglasses into our wardrobe can help stop squinting and help prevent some wrinkles as well.
Second Step: Treat Wrinkles Early
The second step in the anti-aging process is early treatment. Treat wrinkles as soon as they start to appear with Botox or Dysport for the forehead, elevens between the brows, crows, and bunny lines. For the rest of the face start Non-ablative Fractional Laser treatments as soon as possible and continue using retinol. Fractional treatments help stimulate collagen production and resurface the skin to soften fine lines/wrinkles and improve the texture of your skin, including scars!
If you’re using retinol and doing fractional laser treatments, remember to stop the use of retinol for 5-7 days prior to your fractional treatment and after your treatment as well. Retinol is safe between treatments if you use it at a safe interval. If your wrinkles are moderate-to-severe and need further improvement, consider filler in the lower two-thirds of the face for instant results.
Here at Couture Med Spa, we can help! We currently have three convenient locations in Oviedo, Winter Park, and Ocoee, and soon we’ll have a fourth location in Lake Mary. Join us at CoutureMedSpa.com or give us a call for your consultation and VISIA analysis. Let us help you start your anti-aging journey today!!!
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Your First Wrinkle: A Guide to Starting Your Anti-Aging Journey.
By Tiffany M. Darnold, MMS, PA-C
Read MoreFive Ways to Plump Your Pout
Want luscious lips? Join the club! At one point or another, we all want to round out our lips for a more youthful appearance. Thankfully, in the year 2021, you have options for getting fuller lips like never before. Here are five ways to plump your pout this new year: Volumizing with lip filler If […]
Read MoreWant luscious lips? Join the club! At one point or another, we all want to round out our lips for a more youthful appearance. Thankfully, in the year 2021, you have options for getting fuller lips like never before.
Here are five ways to plump your pout this new year:
Volumizing with lip filler
If you’re looking for more volume to your lips, then a hyaluronic acid filler, commonly called lip filler, might be the best product for you. There are various types and thicknesses of fillers to fit your specific needs.
At Couture Med Spa, we have clients who want subtle lip volume and those who are looking for a lot of volume. Juvéderm Ultra, Vollure, and Restylane Kysse are all products that will produce a slight pout to your lips. Juvéderm Ultra and Restylane will provide more volume if that is your end goal.
Your provider will discuss your lip enhancement vision with you and decide which product will be best for you.
Treating lines around the lips with filler
Have you ever put on lipstick, and it just does not look good? Do you have lipstick coloring bleeding on the skin around your lips? Good nows! We can fill in those tiny fine lines around the mouth with hyaluronic acid fillers.
Those lines are called peri-oral rhytids, and they are a very common area to be treated. The products used are very smooth and delicate and will not provide volume to the lips but give a hydrated appearance. Juvéderm’s Volbella and Restylane Silk are great products to address these concerns. If you are looking for volume, these thinner products may not be for you but we have other options as well!
Filler for downward turn mouth
We often have clients who complain that they always look sad, even when they are not. They feel that the corners of their mouth appear “droopy.” This is a very treatable matter! We can place fillers near the edges of the mouth to pick the smile up.
Fillers placed strategically can build a structure to lift the smile, providing a less aged appearance to the lips. This will not give the lips volume, but it will turn that frown upside down! Juvéderm Ultra Plus and Restylane Lyft are my favorite products to life those concerns of the mouth and look very natural in the area.
Lip flip with Botox or Dysport
The coined term “lip flip” has recently been a popular request from my clients. A lip flip is achieved by injecting Botox or Dysport into the muscle around the lips. This does not provide volume to the lips, but it will slightly relax that muscle around the mouth to give a slight pout to the lip.
Botox or Dysport in this area can also prevent the muscle from making exaggerated motions causing lines to form around the mouth, it works as a great preventative measure for peri-oral rhytids. Many of our clients will do lip flips in between their lip fillers to extend their results.
Couture Med Spa’s Eye and Lip Serum
For clients who are nervous about injectables, an excellent hydrating cream is a good alternative. Simply use it around the mouth to plump the skin and help smooth the area, giving a youthful appearance. Couture’s eye and lip serum include hydrating hyaluronic to help moisturize and plump around the lips. This is also great to use after your lip fillers to enhance the effects.
Ready to get the lips and smile you always wanted? Call us for a consultation!