The eye area
The eye area is a main personality feature of a person so we don’t want to freeze all emotion here. Treatment must be subtle enhancing the natural beauty and also remaining with what is age appropriate. The skin around the eye is thin and prone to ageing due to loss of elasticity, bone and collagen in this area. Fine wrinkles and pigmentation appear. Thin skin under the eye appears darker as the muscles and veins around the area are more visible.
Fine wrinkles are treated using botox for the crow’s feet to open up the eye and soften wrinkles and a very fine dermal filler to fill and soften the wrinkles. The deep hollow under the eye called the tear trough area is filled to plump the area stopping that hallowed look as the area is not sunken and dark as it is rejuvenated making a person look less tired and old.
The tear trough
The eyebrow and temporal region are also treated with dermal filler to lift the eyebrow and to fill the hollow in the temporal region that ages us.
I use a fine dermal filler and also use a micro- cannula to prevent bruising. A micro-cannula is like a long thin blunt needle. As it is blunt it doesn’t cut through the blood vessels, keeping them intact and thus not bleeding out giving you a bruise. A sound horrific but it really isn’t. (I’ve treated myself and many patients using this technique.) It may be slightly uncomfortable; luckily the under eye area is easy to anaesthetise using local anaesthetic so you don’t have to feel any discomfort whatsoever.
Hyaluronic acid dermal fillers
Dermal fillers (hyaluronic acid) are hygroscopic meaning they attract water. Once injected into your collagen cells they attract water to fill up and thereby plump your collagen cell. Dermal fillers also stretch the microscopic fibroblsts which are the precursor to collagen cells and thus collagen is then produced. Very clever little things – hyaluronic acid cells !! Remember to like my page
The mid face area is a very much overlooked area where a subtle cheek bone lift will take approximately 5 years off one’s look, yet being so subtle that people will not know quite what you’ve done. This is the most overlooked treatment area. When a patient looks in the mirror they generally see the nasolabial lines around the mouth. These are however caused by loss of fat from the cheek bone and eye area. The fat descends and literally falls over a natural ligament around the mouth (the naso labial lines). There is also loss of bone from the cheek and eye area as it degenerates as we age. Hence when we look in the mirror, this is what we see – deep lines around the mouth.
The ageing face
Mid face ageing is a dead give-away as to a person’s age – yet is the most under treated area in South Africa. In Europe and the states, this is fast growing to be one of the most popular dermal filler treatments. The muscles keeping the fat pads in place become thin and stretch with age also contributing to the descent of our cheek fat pads.
The technique used for mid face and tear trough dermal filler is quite an advanced technique and you should seek out an experienced practitioner. For mid face, a special measuring technique is employed so I know exactly where the filler needs to be inserted. Remember to like my page: Dr Stasi botha
A very thick volumous filler is used as this area and generally takes 1 ml of filler minimum per side. It is more costly than your general fillers; however I keep the price as low as possible. The filler generally lasts one year to 18 months depending on the individual. I usually advise having retreatment at one year so you don’t lose all the effects of the filler.
The lower face is generally also a dead give-away of age as with botox the upper third of the face can look 10 years younger than the lower third. A neat trick: treating the mid – third takes the eye’s focus to the mid face; away from the lower third giving the illusion of a much younger face.
So besides the obvious face lift what can we do.
Quite a bit
Nasolablai Lines
Marionette lines
Vital – fine filler made up of small micro particles that can draw water 10 x it’s own weight into the collagen cells, making wrinkles smoother softer and less evident.
Fill the lips
Straighten the jaw line
MICRONEEDLE MICRONEEDLE MICRONEEDLE
This in conjunction with Restylane Vital which plumps those very fine lines it really rejuvenates the entire mouth area.
All is not lost
And remember…. A face lift cannot give you the volume that filler’s can give you; neither can a filler lift the way surgery can, but in conjunction the two go hand in hand. It’s a personal choice at the end of the day.
Dr Stasi Botha 