AESTHETIC FILLERS
During the past few years there has been an incredible growth in technological advances in the field of non-surgical treatments for skin rejuvenation.
Why is this accelerated growth taking place? The obvious answer is because there is a demand for it. Baby-boomers are once again changing and pushing the markets, but along with that, there is also the fact that technology is growing at enormous rates, in a sense promoting the demands of that market. The advances in genetic engineering will most likely make products and procedures in this field even more feasible.
Before we get into the subject of the use of fillers, it would be important to have a general idea of the facial changes that occur with aging. It isn't all due to gravity, although gravity has a role. But aging brings with it changes in the anatomy of the face and in the physiology of the cells that are pretty much universal.
With aging comes tissue changes that are critical: the thinning of the dermis, the loss of collagen and the atrophy of the muscular mass of the face, as well as loss of bone, all of which combine to make the visibility of the bony landmarks that much more obvious. Now what our eyes see more than anything else are the shadows created by that loss of volume that was not present in our youth.
There is also shifting of fat pads from the temporal areas and the cheeks which bring about the "hollowing" of those parts of the face. As the fat from the cheeks fall, the nasolabial folds become even more exaggerated. The tip of the nose tends to fall, the eyelids droop and the lips turn inward and seem to disappear as we get older. Wrinkles and furrows are now commonplace in an ever-changing facial landscape.
These are some of the changes that come with facial aging. Much more accelerated and drastic in some, for example in those who have ritualistically tanned in the sun, in those who smoke, in those who are predisposed genetically to age at a younger age. In others, the changes may be slower to appear.
Because of the presence of some of these changes, especially in the early stages, and perhaps because the aversity some people may have to anything surgical, and because of many other factors, people have looked for shortcuts and ways to try to remedy their unwelcome changes.
Although it is possible to offset the changes that come with aging with dermal fillers, botulinum toxin, as well as with face-lifts and liposculpture, it is by combining these procedures and restoring the fat and soft tissues, that is, by restoring volume to the face, that the optimal facial rejuvenation is achieved.
