It’s a fact of life that wrinkles are inevitable. But the deeper they are around the mouth, the more they give way to an aged appearance. “The mouth ages just like the rest of the face: it sags and thins out, and wrinkles form. But this is one part of the face that’s commonly ignored and it is a main component of an aged look,” says Reston, VA, plastic surgeon George Weston, MD. “The lips themselves can start to deflate and creases develop as a result,” saysMadison, WI, facial plastic surgeon Richard Parfitt, MD. The sun and smoking can turn barely noticeable lines around your mouth into full-fledged wrinkles that run vertically, even causing your lipstick to bleed. With age, the eyebrows thin and begin to droop, especially at the outer corners—the fat that sits near the brow bone begins to descend, taking the brows down with it. Sagging brows can cause forehead wrinkles to form too since one of the muscles that raises the eyebrows is in the forehead area. Not only is it harder to achieve a defined eyebrow but the skin between the brow and upper eyelid has little support so it becomes loose and saggy, causing a hooded look.
“There is only one way to correct sagging skin: it has to be lifted,” says Dr. George Weston, adding that lasers don’t adequately tighten skin. But just because you choose to have a facelift doesn’t mean that you’ll be flaunting the results right away: it can take a few weeks to a few months for all the swelling and bruising to go down, and up to six months for the scars to fade.
Although a full facelift (a mid-facelift only corrects the middle part of the face and a lower facelift is limited to the area under the nose) will address the current signs of aging, it won’t prevent your face from aging in the future. As long as you take the proper precautions and protect your skin from the sun, the results should be long-lasting.
How will you look 10 years younger? Once the loose skin and muscles are tightened, there are fewer wrinkles so the face overall looks tighter and smoother.
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