Wrinkles

Does it seem like you were going along thinking you didn’t look too bad for your age when suddenly, one night, the Geezer Fairy paid a visit? You woke up and there were lines and wrinkles that weren’t there when you went to bed.

Depending on your genes, facial muscle animation, skin type, lifestyle and degree of sun exposure, you may start developing wrinkles as early as in your twenties. Luckily there are treatments that can erase, improve, and even prevent those lines, depending on the type of wrinkle.

Different Wrinkle Types Need Different Treatments

The three main categories of wrinkles are dynamic wrinkles, static wrinkles, and gravitational folds. Dynamic wrinkles are the lines that result from muscle contractions that cause the skin to bunch up, such as frown lines between the brows, forehead wrinkles, lip lines and “crow’s feet”. This type of wrinkle is only present during facial movement but smooths out when the muscle is relaxed. When the wrinkles start to be perceptible even when the face is relaxed, muscle relaxing treatments like Botox Cosmetic can erase them. Once movement lines become deep when at rest, dermal fillers will give the most improvement, ideally in addition to muscle relaxants like Botox or Dysport. Treatments like laser resurfacing don’t help deep movement lines, since muscle contraction will continue to cause creasing of the skin.

Static wrinkles are the crinkles and creases that can appear anywhere on the body, often parallel to each other or crosshatched, and not necessarily related to muscle movements. As the skin ages it loses elasticity and thickness, and wrinkles caused by your sleeping position, for example, no longer smooth out within minutes of getting up. Examples of this type of wrinkle include the creases that develop on the chests of women with large breasts, diagonal lines across the cheeks, and lines that develop on the neck. 

Dynamic wrinkles can also evolve over years into static wrinkles that are present even when the facial muscles are relaxed.

When static lines are mostly superficial, treatments that replace the outer skin layers, like laser resurfacing, and Profractional treatments provide the best results. For those who don’t want any downtime, microneedling can smooth out fine lines better than you might expect. Deeper lines benefit most from dermal filler treatments, which are injected under the wrinkle to restore a smooth surface.

Gravitational folds develop when the skin begins to sag, which in the face is often due to a loss of underlying volume. Examples of gravitational folds are the nasolabial folds, which run from the sides of your nose down to the corners of your mouth, and marionette lines, which run from your mouth corners down to your chin. Folds can be reduced by replacing the lost volume with dermal fillers or fat. Read more about our approach to facial volume and aging.

Between our extensive array of state-of-the-art in-office treatments and a professional home skincare strategy designed by our experienced aestheticians, we’ll help you reach and maintain the look you want to keep. Call us at 727.571.1923 for a complimentary consultation and we’ll design a customized strategy to have you looking as smooth as possible.