Dr Tanya Futoryan, practicing Board certified Dermatologist and medical director of aesthetic services at Westport Dermatology & Laser center believes in treating the aging face as a whole. Like decorating a room or a house all at once, everything looks better and belongs together. A similar concept applies to the face.
For instance, unless you’re in your 20’s or 30’s, making lips look bigger or cheeks fuller won’t necessarily make you look younger. There will still be some untreated parts that will look aged and give away the work that was done on the treated parts.
What, then, is the global treatment for the “whole face”? A combination of lasers, injectables, fillers, and tightening devices.
Lasers
Lasers treat early signs of aging such as fine lines, wrinkles, and pigmentation. Newer lasers have less downtime because they don’t create a visible wound on the surface of the skin; they deliver the energy in a fractional manner, allowing the surrounding skin to heal quickly.
One gentle laser that remodels dermal collagen and removes unwanted pigment is Clear + Brilliant®. A stronger system called Frax™ by Candela has two deeper penetrating wavelengths to remodel collagen and correct pigment with minimal downtime. Both are excellent for reversing sun damage. Devices called IPL and vascular lasers such as KTP potassium-titanyl-phosphate treat redness, broken capillaries, and rosacea.
Injectables and Fillers
Rebalance overactive muscle groups with Botox, Xeomin, Jeuveau, or Dysport. All four are FDA cleared neuromodulators but have subtle differences.
Starting with upper face and lifting/shaping of the brow, to smoothing and dropping the chin muscle, as well as relaxing an overactive lip to smooth out fine lines and allow more of the pink of the lip to show producing a lip flip.
For structural and soft tissue or fat support, we have a number of fillers and stimulatory injectables such as Sculptra and Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) to help stimulate collagen production over bone and in fat compartments. After such treatments, biomechanical changes occur over time which help form and attach new tissue in place.
Tightening Devices
Skin with deeper lines, wrinkles, and folds can be treated with skin tightening devices such as Sofwave, a newer Ultrasound-based device with nearly no downtime. Radiofrequency (RF) microneedling devices work well, too, but require several treatments and multiple passes to cover the treatment area. These technologies work even better in combination.
It’s always best to use safe and reliable products which have been on the market for at least a year or longer and to have procedures performed by a practitioner with proper training credentialing and expertise.
Dr. Tanya Futoryan has been in practice for over 20 years. She is in practice with Dr. Lauren Levy, a board certified dermatologist, Carrie Wyskiel PA-C, and Rachel Dymond PA-C.
WestportDerm.com
