There’s no single factor that makes your face look older. While you try to age gracefully, a conspiracy of changes rise up to challenge your intentions. The tip of your nose may start to droop. Your hairline may thin and creep backward. Even your ears can elongate over time.
Dr. Richard Blanchar and the team at Bayview General Medicine specialize in medical aesthetics procedures that help you dial back the effects of getting older. No matter what bothers you most about your changes, Dr. Blanchar likely has a solution that’s right for you.
Arguably, the most influential changes happen in your skin. Young, healthy skin is plump and moist, charged with “baby fat” that provides softness and glow through your teens. As you enter your 20s, volume starts to fall off, and at first, this represents feminine maturity and the transition from girl to woman, so it’s not seen as a problem. In males, childhood softness gives way to more chiseled features.
From your 20s to 30s, that volume loss begins to have secondary effects that lead to the lines, creases, and wrinkles that start to dominate in your 40s and 50s. These effects result from changes in each of the three layers that make up your skin.
The most profound changes occur in the dermis, your skin’s middle layer, particularly when it comes to volume loss. The dermis plays a support role for the epidermis, the outer layer, providing it with nutrients and moisture as well as giving skin its overall elastic properties, the ability to “spring back.” So, as the dermis layer deteriorates, so does your skin’s overall resilience.
Collagen is one of the most common proteins in your body, and it forms a matrix in the dermis that physically props up your skin’s surface. As collagen production slows with age, at a rate of about one percent per year, that support is lost. Combined with increased laxity, your skin begins to collapse into voids in the collagen matrix. Overall, your skin thins, dries, and becomes more fragile. Lines and wrinkles appear, and your skin starts to demand more attention.
Other changes begin in your face that can be likened to gravity-related shifting. Your forehead, temples, eyes, cheeks, and mouth all benefit from subcutaneous fat in the hypodermis layer when you’re younger. The collagen layer also controls and shapes this layer lower in your face.
With the years comes a reversal of fortunes. Volume in the upper face starts to wane, fat is less evenly distributed, and it starts to migrate down. The lower face loses collagen support and adds fat, leading to a bottom-heavy jowly appearance.
There’s not a single reason behind the changes that occur with aging, but collagen loss dominates the list. Bayview General Medicine offers a range of treatments that jumpstart new collagen production, increasing the volume and support the dermis layer offers. Contact Dr. Blanchar and our team to find out more about laser revitalization, skin resurfacing, dermal fillers and more. Book your consultation today, by phone or online.
