There’s no doubt most women want to shed their fat, not add more. But when it comes to the face, it may surprise you to learn that a youthful appearance relies on the fat beneath your skin. Apparently, the key to more youthful eyes, cheeks and lips is a little plumping. Here’s what the experts say.
cheeks
The fountain of youth relies on zygomatics, which is not a ‘as seen on TV’ gadget for slicing, dicing and juicing. We already have zygomatics, one in each cheek: our zygomatic bones. By keeping the skin around those from sagging and sinking, we can preserve youth.
The key to balance
“As we age, many of the things we don’t like on our faces—the lines around the mouth, the jowly chins—come from the cheeks, says Dr. Natalie Semchyshyn, a SLUCare dermatologist. “Our bones thin everywhere, including the cheek area, and the youthful fat around those cheeks goes south.” The zygomatic bones give the cheeks definition and form part of the eye orbits. “If you lose the scaffolding to hold up the skin, everything starts to sag,” Semchyshyn says.
Dr. Richard Maack, facial plastic surgeon at Synergi Facial Surgery in Chesterfield, adds: “As we age the face loses bone, collagen and fat. The cheeks are important because they give us a youthful, refreshed appearance.”
Filling in the blanks
“Many years ago, all we had were implants, but now the most popular approach is replacing that lost volume with fillers,” Maack says. Sagging facial tissues most commonly create lines between the nose and mouth corners (nasolabial folds) and below the mouth (marionette lines). “We used to think we could just fill in those lines,” Semchyshyn says. “But if you don’t treat the cheek and under-eye areas, you will still have a tired look that is not youthful.”
Fillers used to supplement the cheek area are very natural, Maack adds. “We can contour them to the cheeks, face and temple area. We have three categories of filler,” he explains. “The hyaluronic acids raise the tissue and give it volume. The more dramatic filler, a calcium injection, sits right on the bone. Another builds up your own collagen; it has little particles of lactic acid that your body builds collagen around,” Semchyshyn says.
No pain, lots of gain
Fillers are applied through a few needle sticks, Semchyshyn says. “It is really not painful. We put a numbing cream on the skin 20 to 30 minutes beforehand so the patients don’t feel much. The number of injections depends on the area that needs to be treated. It can be as few as two or three. Any time you are getting injections in the skin, there is a risk of bruising and there can be some puffiness and redness for a few days.”
The body breaks down the synthetic fillers over time as it would their natural counterparts. “Some products can last nine to 12 months, sometimes up to two years,” Semchyshyn says. “The cost can range from $700 up to $3,000, depending on how much you need.”
The next step implants
Cheek implants, consisting of firm silicone 1 to 2 inches long, remain the choice of some patients despite their more invasive, surgical nature, Maack explains. “The procedure is not too bad,” he says. “There is no external incision since we go under the lip. We don’t have much bruising, maybe a little numbness temporarily. The cost of implants is probably $3,000, but injectable fillers, too, add up over time.” Fillers do not replace a surgical face-lift, Semchyshyn says. “They are intended to freshen your appearance in an easy treatment with low downtime and low risk.”
food as medicine
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,” wrote Hippocrates, the Greek physician still considered the father of modern medicine, nearly 2,500 years ago. It’s an eloquent way of stating, “We are what we eat.” So how can we improve our ‘medicinal’ eating? “Many things we now use as spices have a long history of medicinal use,” says F. Afua Bromley, acupuncturist and Eastern medicine practitioner at Acupuncture St. Louis. “We see them within the texts of Chinese medicine and folk medicine, going back thousands of years.”
During her training, Bromley spent weeks in Chinese hospitals. “Medicinal soup formulas were considered part of your therapy,” she says, noting that many foods have long been prescribed for settling upset tummies, clearing congested airways and other uses.
fruit
Pears
»The fruit of a tree species that originated in western Europe and north Africa. Comfort for a sore throat
Bitter melon
»The fruit of a vine grown in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. Used in soups or salads to lower blood sugar.
Papaya
»The fruit of tree-like plants in the tropics of Southern Mexico and Central America. A potent digestive enzyme also used in meat tenderizers.
veggies/meat
Shiitake mushrooms
»Native to East Asia and now cultivated around the world. Long used in traditional medicine to boost the immune system and inhibit tumor growth.
Potato
»The tuber of plants found throughout the Americas. Contains an enzyme that assists in healing ulcers.
Bone broth
»A stock made by boiling bones. Boosts the immune system and helps recovery from anemia.
lips
Small but powerful, lips radiate personality, beauty—and age. They’re the proverbial canaries in the coal mine, the first facial feature to lose youthful plumpness. But with a little help, this is one time you can fool Mother Nature.
Collagen & soft tissue
“The lips start to lose volume in the early 20s with the loss of collagen production and the decrease of soft tissue and fat in the face,” says Dr. Richard Moore, cosmetic surgeon and medical director of The Lifestyle Center.
“The human brain is hard-wired to notice subtle features. An aging lip has several things happening,” agrees Dr. Joseph A. Muccini, a surgical dermatologist at MidAmerica Skin Health & Vitality Center. “We lose some of the supple, kissable quality we associate with youth. Some of that is related to the loss of volume in other parts of the face. As the cheeks droop, the geometries around the lips change. The corners of the mouth are buried, and a smile might turn into a frown.” A tell-tale sign of lip retreat is the loss of real estate for makeup.
Protest your assets
There is no way to stop the clock, but you can take care of your lips. “Smoking, drinking through a straw and sun exposure can be a terrible combination,” Muccini says. Pulling all those thick smoothies through a straw actually can tighten the muscles surrounding the lips and turn the adjacent skin into a wrinkle farm.
Lip moisturizers and sun screens, while recommended for health and comfort, are not going to delay aging, Moore points out. Neither will early application of dermal fillers, the common treatment for thinning lips. But it will make your lips look younger. “It is not a preventive thing,” he says. “While there is a little bit of collagen stimulation caused by dermal fillers, it is not going to make a difference in the aging process.”
The whole picture
The current trend in rejuvenation considers the lips in concert with adjacent facial features. “It isn’t just about the lips,” Muccini says. “We have to decide what elements the patient would like to address. We can augment the lip itself, but as the woman passes the age of 35, we see the lip in context with other parts of the face. Over 55, we talk about a more global approach.”
Dermal fillers, costing about $550 to $650 per syringe (adequate for most lip plumping), are synthetic versions of substances naturally found in the body. “There are injection techniques that can make the lips appear fuller as they thin,” Moore says. “Adding volume also can help in the early stages of wrinkling around the mouth.”
A slight adjustment may take years off the lips’ perceived age, Muccini says. “The fine margin between the pink lip and the outside skin is called the vermilion border. It is one of the features we subconsciously associate with youth. Doing fine detail work with filler around the border makes the lip pop.”
Another way to add definition to lips is via synthetic, dissolvable sutures. “We can lift the corner of the lip and take years off someone’s appearance,” Moore says. “NovaThread is made of a material that the body dissolves over four to six months and leaves a strand of collagen so the benefit lasts nine to 14 months.”
In rare cases, botulinum toxin products may be used to counteract wrinkles and lines, Muccini says. “If applied meticulously in a diluted or diffused way, there are a few places around the lip where the smile can be improved when there is wrinkling from muscle contraction.”
