People are understandably wary of the aging process. In West Hollywood in particular, many people have taken steps to slow down the aging process on their face by using BOTOX®.

Some of the most popular apps for smartphones these days are those that will take a person’s photograph and make them look younger or make them look older. It is easy to understand why people get a kick out of seeing themselves digitally altered to look younger. It reminds them of how they looked not so long ago. It is also easy to understand why people are interested in apps that alter their face to make them look older.

Before discussing how minimally-invasive, non-surgical treatments can help to slow down the aging process on your face, it is good to take some time to discuss what happens to a person when they age and how this affects the appearance of their face.

The Obsession with Aging Gracefully

Most people understand that there is nothing that they can do to completely stop the aging process. It is an unfortunate part of life. However, people would love to get older without showing the signs of aging. The best thing that most people can hope for is to age gracefully. This means that you will be able to tell that they are a bit older, but they will not take on the rough or haggard appearance that some other people do as they age.

There is a bit of irony that accompanies the aging process. Everyone wants to get older because it means that they live another day, but no one really wants to age. They appreciate the wisdom and knowledge that come with getting older, but they could do without the loss of facial volume, wrinkled skin, and gray hair. While the aging process eventually affects every nook and cranny of the body, the place where it is most visible is usually on the face.

What Happens to the Face As It Ages?

The face goes through a number of notable changes as a person gets older. Some of these changes are very apparent, and people can readily identify them. For example, if you were to ask a child to make a list of the characteristics that an old person’s face would have, most of them would say that an old person has wrinkled skin.

But the changes brought about by the aging process are more numerous than wrinkled skin, and they have a deeper effect. For example, for both men and women, their hairline will begin to retreat. A retreating hairline is more noticeable in men than women, but it affects both sexes. Cartilage in the ears grows, causing the ears to take on a larger appearance. The cartilage and connective tissue in the nose become weaker, and this causes the tip of the nose to droop.

In addition to these external changes that are seen, there are a number of internal changes that are not immediately noticeable. The structure of your face is rearranging behind the scenes. When a person is young, their face is full of fatty deposits that are evenly distributed. There are sizable pockets of fat around the cheeks and on the forehead. These are what give the face a plump and young appearance. The same is true with the areas around the eyes and the mouth.

However, as a person starts to age, those fatty deposits disappear. Or if they don’t disappear altogether, they will group up and start to sag. At the same time, fat is collecting on other parts of the face, especially around the chin and the jowl area.

When talking about this change that takes place in the face, those in the beauty industry talk about a change from the triangle of beauty to the trapezoid of aging. The triangle of beauty is where the mid-face is full, so each cheek is kind of like the apex of a triangle with the chin rounding out the shape. As a person gets older, that triangle flips around and often distorts, so the fuller part of the face is on the bottom.

And, of course, we cannot discuss aging without talking about wrinkles. Wrinkles come in two varieties. There are static wrinkles, and there are dynamic wrinkles. Static wrinkles are the wrinkles that develop on your face as a result of a loss of facial volume. You can almost think about it like sucking the air out of a balloon. When a person is young, their face has those healthy fat deposits and other substances that keep their skin tight, like an inflated balloon. However, as they get older and those fat deposits either disappear or shift and the production of other substances slows down, their face becomes like a deflated balloon and starts to take on a wrinkled and sagging appearance.

Static wrinkles are referred to as such because they are always on a person’s face. It does not matter the facial expression they are making, whether their face is in motion, or whether their face is at rest. The wrinkles are always there. An example of someone who has noticeable static wrinkles would be the actor Tommy Lee Jones. His static wrinkles are his trademark.

Static wrinkles can also be formed by exposure to the sun, smoking, and other influences that prevent the skin from maintaining its thick and supple appearance. Static wrinkles can often be reversed by using dermal fillers.

Dynamic Wrinkles and Their Effect on Your Appearance

The second type of wrinkle you can develop is dynamic wrinkles. As the name implies, dynamic wrinkles are related to the facial movements and expressions that a person makes. When you look at yourself in the mirror and you smile, you probably notice the development of wrinkles along the sides of your eyes and around your mouth. These wrinkles disappear when you stop smiling or when you change your facial expression.

As a person gets older, as their skin gets thinner, and as they lose some of the fat deposits we discussed previously, their dynamic wrinkles become more profound. In fact, with time, dynamic wrinkles can etch into the skin and become static wrinkles. Dynamic wrinkles are what our West Hollywood clients want to treat when they come to our office for BOTOX® injections.

Dynamic wrinkles cannot be treated with topical creams, be them over-the-counter options or prescription products. The reason for this is that the cause of dynamic wrinkles is deeper than a person’s skin.

Dynamic wrinkles are caused by the contractions of the muscles underneath your facial skin. When your muscles contract, they pull on your skin, causing it to fold. When you are young and your skin is full of collagen and hyaluronic acid, this pulling and folding motion is not that big of a deal. Your skin has the resilience to pop right back to its normal resting position. Over time, the constant folding of your skin starts to form permanent creases.

What is so frustrating about dynamic wrinkles is that they form around the parts of your face that are used to denote expression, so they are the parts of your face that people tend to look at first. Dynamic wrinkles form on your forehead, they form around your eyes, and they form in the area in between your eyebrows. This is why they make you look so much older than what you really are.

Can I Do Anything to Address My Aging Face?

You may find yourself looking in the mirror and trying to determine what type of wrinkles you have and how seriously they affect your appearance. Thankfully, there are steps that you can take to improve the appearance of your face. Even if you were born with great genes, you are still going to show age-related changes in your facial appearance at some point. These age-related changes are a reflection of the life that you have lived. With dynamic wrinkles, they reflect the times that you have laughed, smiled, cried, and been angry.

While some people embrace the aging process, most of us want to postpone the aging process as much as possible. Some people think about getting a surgical facelift. A facelift is designed to tighten the skin, reposition fat deposits, and tighten up muscles. The goal is to give you an age-defying appearance. In some cases, a facelift can make you look years younger than what you truly are.

That being said, many people in West Hollywood don’t want to get a facelift. For every good facelift they have seen, they have also seen a number of people who have gotten a facelift that they regret. More and more people are opting to use non-surgical treatments to address aging, and for good reason!

Appreciating the Benefits of BOTOX®

Every year, millions of people use this product as a way of addressing their dynamic wrinkles. This makes this non-surgical and minimally-invasive treatment the most popular cosmetic treatment performed on the planet today. And while we are focusing on the cosmetic benefits of this treatment, we would be remiss if we did not mention that this injectable is being used for non-cosmetic purposes as well.

The truth is that the treatment started as a way to help people with muscle spasms. People continued to use it as a treatment for migraines, and it was only then that the cosmetic benefits of the treatment were realized. People going in to get injections to treat their migraines realized that the dynamic wrinkles they had around the areas that were being treated started to fade or disappear. They were looking younger. Of course, this caught the interest of those in the cosmetic industry, and soon the beautifying qualities of this treatment came about.

BOTOX® is basically a purified protein solution that is able to modulate or affect the way that nerve cells send signals. BOTOX® prevents certain signals from reaching nerve cells, therefore relaxing them.

In order for your facial muscles to contract, be it voluntarily or involuntarily, your nerves have to release a chemical messenger. However, the neural modulator prevents your nerves from releasing this chemical, thereby preventing the treated facial muscles from contracting completely or preventing them from contracting as forcefully. The result is that your muscles become less stiff, and the skin on top of your muscles is not constantly being folded.

One of the reasons why this treatment is so popular is because of its ease of administration and its temporary nature. When a person comes in to have these treatments done, they should expect the actual injections to take just minutes. Our skilled professional will be able to address the areas of concern where you have dynamic wrinkles. The amount of the medication that is administered will vary based on the severity of the dynamic wrinkles that are being treated and their location, among other factors.

Treatments do not produce immediate results. Most people will start to see the results in the days after they have the injections administered. The results of the treatment are not permanent. They will last for multiple months at a time before follow-up injections are needed to maintain them.

Most people in West Hollywood love the way they look after a BOTOX® treatment. They like how smooth their skin looks. They like the fact that they look younger, yet most people have no idea that they have had any treatment done.

Since these treatments are administered in a non-surgical way in the comfort of our office, there is no set downtime. It is common for people to come to our office during a break from their other daily activities, receive the injections, and then go about the rest of their errands as if nothing happened. To see how Dr. Jason Emer, a board-certified dermatologist in West Hollywood specializing in facial sculpting, performs this treatment, click here.

These treatments have been tested over the years and administered to millions of individuals. The unbelievable safety record of these treatments is another thing that attracts people to them. As long as the medication is administered in proper doses by a trained professional, there is almost no chance of there being any serious side effects.

A Convenient Way to Look and Feel Your Best

There is nothing that can be done to permanently stop the aging process. It would be great if an option like this existed, and maybe it will in the future. However, for the time being, #emerage BOTOX® treatments allow people to delay signs of the aging process in a safe, quick, and convenient way. Are you frustrated with the way the aging process is affecting your appearance? Do you feel like you look a lot older than you feel because of the presence of dynamic wrinkles? If so, book a #facebyemer consultation at the office of Dr. Jason Emer #jasonemermd in West Hollywood. We are proud to offer a variety of #emerageMedical and #bodybyemer procedures as well, making us the go-to destination in West Hollywood for those wishing to achieve their cosmetic goals. To get started, contact us today and book an appointment!

 

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Baby 👶🏼 botox injections keeps the skin smooth by decreasing oil and sweating 😓 while also softening the movement of the underlying muscle. 💪🏻 Precise injections are needed to ensure the eyebrows stay in the proper position and the forehead looks natural not frozen. ❄️

A post shared by Jason Emer, MD (@jasonemermd) on Dec 5, 2017 at 7:18pm PST