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facial rejuvenation Atlanta

Dear Dr. LeRoy: Common Questions About Facial Rejuvenation

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Looking younger is one of the top cosmetic concerns for men and women alike. As a double board-certified plastic surgeon who specializes in facial rejuvenation, I spend most of my time working toward this goal for my patients. In over twenty years as a plastic surgeon, I’ve heard just about every question you can imagine about facial rejuvenation. Chances are that you have some of the same questions my past patients have had, so to help you learn more about your options, I’ve compiled and answered some of the most common questions I hear about aging.

What's the Difference Between a Band Aid Facelift and a Band Aid Micro Mini Facelift

What’s the best age for a facelift?

Some patients expect that there’s a general age at which most people are ready for a facelift. In reality, everyone ages at a different pace, so the number on your driver’s license has nothing to do with determining which cosmetic procedure will best suit your needs. Instead, it depends on the unique signs of aging you have and how severe they are.

Many patients who first come to me haven’t yet aged enough to warrant a traditional facelift. For these patients, my specialized Band Aid Mini Facelift can offer natural-looking results with half the recovery time, minimal scarring and swelling, and gentle numbing rather than general anesthesia.

Does Botox® really freeze your face?

Botox® and Dysport® does reduce wrinkles by relaxing the muscles that have become tensed and wrinkled by repeated facial expressions. However, if it’s injected by a board-certified plastic surgeon with a skilled technique, Botox® and Dysport® can reduce your wrinkles while letting you still feel like you can make natural facial expressions. When either is administered well, you’ll look younger and more refreshed but no one will recognize why.

Will a facelift get rid of age spots?

Facelifts address the shape of your skin, but age spots (or liver spots, which are caused by sun damage) are formed by excess pigment within the skin. As a result, a facelift doesn’t remove age spots. If you want to reduce sagging skin as well as age spots, I typically recommend a facelift followed by Band Aid Laser Skin Resurfacing. It’s a minimally invasive treatment that breaks down the excess pigment in age spots while also reducing fine lines, wrinkles, in addition to tightening the skin and rebuilding collagen.

Why does it seem like I have extra skin as I age? Is my body producing more skin?

The amount of skin you have doesn’t increase as you age. Instead, your skin becomes thinner and starts to sag. If you take a ball of dough and hold it up by just the top, the lower part will get longer and thinner. This is the same thing that happens to your skin as you age. A facelift removes the sagging skin and lifts the remaining skin and other tissue to a more youthful position and shape.

Can Botox® or Dysport® prevent wrinkles?

There’s a growing trend of preventative Botox® or Dysport®. These injections don’t just relax wrinkled muscles like those that form crow’s feet, frown lines, and forehead wrinkles. They also keep those muscles from continuing to tense and to form worsening wrinkles. In this way, starting Botox® injections in the early stages of aging can keep wrinkles to a minimum.

Will taking collagen supplements make my skin firmer?

Collagen is the protein that keeps your skin young and firm. However, in order to make your skin look younger, there are specific ways to cause your body to produce more collagen within the skin. Some companies sell supplements and even beverages that contain collagen, but this will not rejuvenate your skin.

While you can’t stop time, you can control the way your body responds to it. By taking preventative measures and learning about all your options for looking younger, you can remain your most confident and beautiful self for years to come. If you want to reduce aging that has already appeared, schedule an appointment with me, Dr. John L. LeRoy. For more facial rejuvenation tips, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

What Exactly Makes a Person Look Older?

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If you were to ask people to explain what it is that makes an aging person look older, most would say it’s wrinkles. This seems to be the go-to feature that people associate with aging. However, there are many ways in which the aging process changes your appearance, and there are several traits that can give away your age. As a double board-certified plastic surgeon who has been working with patients for over twenty years, I have a passion for educating others about my areas of expertise. In that interest, this breakdown can help you have a better understanding about the many forms aging can take and the ways you can fight them.

What Exactly Makes a Person Look Older

Wrinkles

In the earlier stages (often the late 20s and early 30s), signs of aging can begin to appear in the form of a few expression lines. In areas like the forehead, the outer corners of the eyes, and the space between the eyebrows, the muscles you use to make facial expressions can develop creases which appear as wrinkles in your skin. As the years progress, fat deposits will shift and the skin loses some of its firmness, which leads wrinkles to develop around the mouth and nose, above the upper lip, and on the front of the chin.

Facial Structure

Few of my plastic surgery patients actually recognize how much their underlying facial structure can change with age – they think of aging as something that happens to their skin. In actuality, facial fat often fades and shifts so that you develop “hollows” in your cheeks while developing more fullness around the jowl area. Similarly, facial muscles can shift and lose tone. At the same time, bones can lose volume as well, and because cartilage may continue to grow, some patients notice their ears or nose becoming longer.

Sagging Skin

When you’re young, your body produces plenty of collagen and elastin – unique proteins that keep skin firm and smooth. These proteins are constantly being broken down and replaced, but the problem is that as you get older, your body produces less and less of them. That means that your skin gradually has less ability to maintain its youthful firmness, and this is what gives rise to common problems like jowls and sagging skin on the neck. While it’s often at its most noticeable on the face, this same process happens to other areas of the body as well, like the arms, legs, chest, and more.

Wrinkles, facial restructuring, and sagging skin all combine together to create an aging appearance, and it’s a combination of all of them that gives away your age. Why is it important to have an understanding of the complexity of aging? Recognizing this concept is instrumental in helping you rejuvenate your appearance in a natural-looking way. Instead of solely focusing on your wrinkles and expecting to truly look like a younger you, aim for procedures which can actually address aging in a well-rounded way. While this might sound like a more extensive process, it can actually be done in a minimally invasive way with procedures like my Band Aid Facelift or a Band Aid Micro Mini Face Lift. While they are surgeries, both of these procedures are performed in-office using gentle numbing rather than general anesthesia. Whether it’s a specialized cosmetic surgery like a Band Aid Facelift or another procedure or combination of treatments (like nonsurgical skin tightening, injectables, or laser skin resurfacing), taking a more well-rounded approach to your facial rejuvenation can help you get the results you want rather than a half-hearted improvement.

If you’re ready to start getting your confidence back and becoming your most confident and beautiful self, schedule a consultation with me, Dr. John L. LeRoy. For more plastic surgery tips and fun facts, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

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