Grand Overview
Facial aging defined
At its most basic, when our faces look older it’s because there are more shadows seen throughout the face. These shadows may be wrinkles that appear when we smile or show more emotion, or they can be different shadows seen at rest, like undereye circles or hollow cheeks. When we were young, our faces had plenty of collagen and volume, and our contours were round, reflecting light in all directions. But with age tissues grow thinner and volume is lost. So when we say that we want a refreshed look we are usually talking about removing shadows and restoring volume of the face through injectable face wrinkles treatment.
Not all injectable treatments are anti-aging though. Many people are just born with less volume in the lips or cheeks, so in these individuals a ‘refreshed’ look means a bit more volume to create a softer, slightly fuller appearance.
So there are really three categories of treatments that we talk about for injectable fillers: face wrinkles treatment for lines that deepen with facial animation, wrinkle treatments for shadows in the face that are present at rest, and augmentation of lips and other facial areas when there’s simply not enough volume.
The relaxers: treatments for ‘active’ wrinkles
There is a whole category of treatments that, simply put, temporarily relax muscles. These are medications like Botox, Dysport and Xeomin that can soften the crow’s feet, frown lines or forehead lines. A common misconception is that Botox is a filler, which it isn’t. Its function is to relax and soften muscles only, not providing any filling. If done properly, they melt away wrinkles in those areas while not interfering at all with your ability to show normal, authentic emotions.
Fillers for aging: treatments for wrinkles and shadows when the face is at rest
Another category of face wrinkles treatment restores lost volume due to aging. This can be small amounts of volume immediately beneath individual small wrinkles, or larger amounts of volume across the entire face from the thinness that comes with aging. Fillers are much more varied than the relaxers, and have different ingredients, durations of action, and best areas of the face for their use. There’s much more to learn about the fillers than the relaxers, and if you’d like to learn more then visit the fillers overview.
