When your face starts to sag, your first impulse is probably to lift your skin with your fingers while you look in the mirror, so you can restore a more youthful look … for a few seconds. A face-lift, of course, makes that lift permanent (or, at least, holds it for up to 10 years).
However, a face-lift isn’t your only option. More and more, women (including some of your favorite celebrities) turn to dermal fillers as a first-line treatment to restore volume, lift, and firmness in the face.
In fact, in 2020, only 234,374 face-lifts were performed in the U.S., compared with 3.4 million dermal filler applications.
At The Center for Dermatology Cosmetic & Laser Surgery in Mount Kisco, New York, our team of expert dermatologists and surgeons offer both surgical face-lifts and nonsurgical procedures that lift and firm the face. Here’s how and why dermal fillers may be your best anti-aging choice.
While a face-lift can restore youth and lift to your skin for up to a decade, you must go through a lengthy healing and recovery period. Directly after your face-lift, your face is swollen, bruised, and tender.
In contrast, when you restore volume, lift, and firmness with dermal fillers, you leave our office with beautifully restored facial contours. Dermal fillers such as Juvéderm®, Restylane®, and Radiesse® instantly plump up your skin so it’s soft and youthful again.
You can use dermal fillers to restore general volume. You can also use them to target and plump up deficient areas, such as:
Juvéderm and Restylane are made of a synthetic form of hyaluronic acid (HA), a substance your body produces plentifully when you’re young to moisturize your skin and joints. Over time, you produce less HA, one reason your skin thins and sags.
Radiesse has a different formulation. It’s composed of CaHA particles in a gel matrix that instantly corrects deficiencies in facial volume. Over time, the CaHA particles also stimulate your skin to produce more collagen and elastin.
When you look at babies, children, and people in their teens or 20s, you don’t see tight skin. You see defined angles, softness, contours, and lift.
Dermal fillers mimic that look by providing the volume that’s otherwise lost to aging. Youthful skin is plump and firm because it’s filled with collagen, elastin, and fat. Aging skin is loose and thin because it can no longer produce enough collagen, elastin, and fat to maintain its shape.
Our experts restore youthful curves and volume to your face by injecting dermal fillers into areas that have lost volume and firmness. We can also build up areas you were never happy with, such as creating stronger, higher cheekbones, or a stronger chin.
Almost all dermal fillers trigger some amount of collagen stimulation. However, Radiesse is uniquely formulated to restart your skin’s collagen-and-elastin factory. The CaHA particles form a scaffold on your skin that’s then replaced by a collagen and elastin matrix.
Because Radiesse improves the health of your skin by stimulating collagen and elastin production, the results are long-lasting. Radiesse may last up to a year in the face and hands. Some HA fillers last that long, too, but others must be retouched every few months.
Dermal fillers usually contain anesthetics that help keep you comfortable during your injections. We also clean and numb your face before your treatment. If you’re extra sensitive, we may provide you with medication that dulls sensation.
Though face-lifts are dramatic rejuvenations, they do require surgery and general anesthesia. If you’d rather avoid the side effects of anesthesia, then we recommend dermal fillers instead.
Of course, if you’d rather have a face-lift, we can provide you with a beautiful, natural-looking, long-lasting surgical restoration.
Depending on your needs, we may suggest combining a face-lift with other procedures, such as laser skin renewal and dermal fillers, to create the most natural, youthful rejuvenation.
Find out whether dermal fillers, a face-lift, or both are best for you by contacting our team by phone or online form today.
