As we get older, the signs of wear and tear on our faces only appear more and more obvious. From the laugh lines around the mouth to the crow’s feet creeping out from the sides of the eyes, there are several ways people show their age. While fancy creams and medical facials can help slow down time, the most effective method is to seek medical advice from the pros. In order to highlight all the best ways to treat aging skin, we talked to the team at Summit Medical Group in New Jersey. Below, the latest procedures that will give your face a refresh and deliver natural results. Hello, youthful complexion!
NewBeauty: If you don’t want to do anything too drastic, what nonsurgical, anti-aging treatments are available?
Dr. Daniel Schmid: Nonsurgical options for improving facial aging include injectables, skin resurfacing, and other noninvasive treatments. Botox is the most common facial injectable that is used to give the face a more youthful appearance by decreasing the movement of certain facial muscles. Fillers are used to add volume to cheeks, lips, marionette lines, smile lines, and other problem areas. Our practice uses the most advanced injection techniques to improve your appearance in a subtle yet substantial way. The great thing is nearly everyone can benefit from it.
For issues of the skin’s surface, we do resurfacing treatments using Fraxel CO2 Laser and chemical peels. These treatments stimulate collagen growth and they can also even out skin tone and improve sunspots. These nonsurgical modalities can greatly improve one’s appearance with minimal downtime in an in-office procedure. Patients with fine or deep wrinkles of the face or with uneven skin tone due to sun damage are good candidates for resurfacing.
Lastly, our practice offers Ultherapy, which is high-intensity focused ultrasound energy that targets the deeper layers of the skin. This stimulates collagen production which in turn tightens the skin, and it can be used on the entire face and décolletage. The treatment is administered in the office in about an hour, has no downtime and is particularly beneficial for patients with good skin tone and elasticity that are experiencing the beginnings of facial aging.
NewBeauty: What surgical offerings are beneficial?
Dr. Peter Hyans: There are many surgery-centric options that improve the signs of aging, so let me break them down for you. The fist is blepharoplasty, a treatment for the upper and lower eyelids, including excess skin and bags. This procedure usually involves a small incision in the upper eyelid while the lower eyelid is addressed through a small incision just below the lashes or inside the eyelid. This can be done as an outpatient under a brief anesthesia, and recovery is usually no more than a week. Once the swelling and bruising has resolved, you can expect your lids to appear more youthful.
A more comprehensive option is a face or neck lift. There are many variations of this procedure depending on the patient’s needs and the specific areas of the face and neck that they’d like to target. Since this lifting procedure tightens and lifts the skin, recovery usually requires a couple of weeks, but the results leave you looking rested and refreshed.
Then there’s the brow lift that is usually performed to elevate a patient’s forehead and eyebrows by making small incisions made in the hairline. No matter what surgical option you choose, some additional procedures may be performed in conjunction with them on to enhance your overall appearance. For example, fat grafting aids in replacing unwanted volume loss while a chemical peel or laser treatment can also be performed to address fine lines or textural and pigmentation changes. Many of these add-ons can be done under the same anesthesia during surgery to limit the patient’s recovery and need for multiple surgeries.
NewBeauty: How do you decide which type of procedure is right for you?
Dr. Daniel Pyo: I believe that it is very important for the patient to understand how the aging process is impacting their appearance before they decide what procedure is appropriate for them. I explain to patients that there are three main categories that determine how they are aging—these include volume loss, gravitational descent of the soft tissues, and skin laxity or stretching—and that each of these processes can occur in isolation or in combination. I always make sure to tell them how these factors affect the cheeks, jowls, and neck, so the patient develops an understanding of how each area of the face changes in the aging process.
Once we’ve had this conversation, we discuss the options for surgical versus nonsurgical rejuvenation of the face by identifying the areas of the face that are of most concern and discuss how they can be best managed. I’ll go over the risks and benefits of each procedure, including the technical details, the expected outcomes and the recovery plan. It’s also important to talk with your doctor about how each procedure relates to one another, because the balance and harmony of the face is extremely important. Beyond covering all these things with your doctor, also make sure to ask about the surgeon’s experience as well as their philosophy on rejuvenation is.
NewBeauty: Speaking of philosophy, what’s Summit Medical Group’s ethos and approach to facial rejuvenation?
Dr. Reza Momeni: We focus on three important pillars: safety, harmony, and balance. To ensure their own safety, patients should always check a surgeon’s board-certification credentials and proper training. In particular, this means choosing a board-certified plastic surgeon if you are having a surgical procedure and ensuring the operating room they use is inspected and certified in your state. After safety, the most important single item is to ensure your doctor shares the same goals as you. In other words, their treatment goals must match your expectations.
For example, if you want to stay natural and not look “done”, it’s critical to choose a surgeon that does not think a “done” faces look good. You shouldn’t go with a doctor who makes their patients look very different after surgery, anyone whose work emulates a certain celebrity or someone who insists that a patient in their forties and fifties should look like they did when they were twenty-two.
Our goal at Summit Medical Group is to make a patient look rested, refreshed, and healthy, at whatever age they happen to be. I strongly believe that if you’re forty, it’s best to look amazing for forty or if you’re sixty, we want to make you appear wonderful for sixty. Our entire practice’s focus is to maintain the balance and harmony between the face and neck when we’re done. We don’t want to focus overtly on one area (such as over-plumped lips) or fix problems half-way (such as lifting a sagging neck but leaving a patient’s jowls hanging over that lifted neck). When everything matches, patients will look wonderful, regardless of their age. For us as plastic surgeons to accomplish this successfully for our patients, it takes listening, respect, and an artistic eye for balance and harmony.
NewBeauty: What are some of the most interesting treatments available now or coming soon to the cosmetic surgery industry that can aid in facial rejuvenation?
Dr. Jain Joseph: In today’s fast-paced world, a lot of focus has been shifted to non-surgical treatment of the face. These minimally invasive procedures require little to no downtime. Different neurotoxins are being developed in addition to the most well-known brand to attack wrinkles and facial aging. It’s interesting seeing that young patients, men especially, are seeing higher rates of neurotoxin injection than before.
Due to our better understanding of facial fat compartments, it helps usutilize fillers in a more aesthetic anatomical manner. Companies have developed fillers with different properties better suited to address different areas of volume concern, but it is ultimately up to you and your surgeon to determine which type would best address your needs.
The world of chemical peels has also seen a recent surge in innovation, with many different types of peels currently available. Currently, peels like the “vampire facial” are gaining popularity, depending on which social influencer you follow. The vampire facial utilizes PRP, or platelet rich plasma, to improve the quality of the skin using the plasma’s high concentration of growth factors. PRP is currently being used in the treatment for hair loss as well and studies have shown improved hair re-growth with no surgery required.
Additionally, the tech industry is also helping shape the future of aesthetic surgery. 3-D printing has enabled surgeons to fabricate customized implants for the face and body, as well as print 3-D models to aid in surgical planning and operation. Since the future of facial aesthetic surgery is ever changing and evolving in line with technology, it continues to help us deliver the best results possible with the least downtime for our patients.
