These days, you have more facelift options than ever before, including a variety of non-surgical options that can help take years off your appearance. You might still be young, but that doesn’t mean you haven’t started to notice the signs of aging.
If you don’t have the time to commit to a surgical facelift or don’t yet have the skin laxity and sagging that a facelift calls for, it can be worth considering more alternative facelift options. Take a look in the mirror to get a sense of where and how your face is changing, then check out some of the options available to you.
Ultherapy for Loose Skin
Some sagging in the skin is common as you get older. Collagen, a type of protein, provides a support system to keep your skin elevated and firm. As you age, your body produces less and less collagen. Without the support and scaffolding provided by collagen, skin starts to droop and sag.
The result is a jowly look and more creases around the lower part of your face. A facelift minimizes jowls and smooths deep creases by tightening the skin and the supporting tissue underneath it. For a long time, the only way to tighten skin was with surgery.
But, in recent years, the FDA has approved a treatment known as Ultherapy. It’s the only non-surgical treatment that is approved to tighten skin. Ultherapy uses ultrasound energy to stimulate the production of collagen in the dermis.
Once your body begins to produce more collagen, loose skin becomes firmer and tighter. Visible sagging starts to diminish.
Ultherapy is one of the quicker facelift options available. Treatment usually takes less than an hour and you’re likely to need just a single treatment to get the results you want. While there is no real downtime, it typically takes a few months before final results are visible, though many people begin to notice a change in their appearance in the first few days after treatment.
As far as facelift options go, Ultherapy isn’t for everyone. It’s best for younger patients who are just beginning to see some droop and sag in the lower part of their face. As an added bonus, Ultherapy is also approved for combating drooping in the brow area, meaning it can also serve an alternative to a brow lift for the right patient.
CoolMini for a Double Chin
Fat is a funny thing. When you’re younger, fat in the cheek area helps you look youthful. But as you age, fat in the area beneath the chin can contribute to a sagging and droopy look, adding years to your appearance. While a traditional, surgical facelift will help reduce fat beneath the chin, you don’t have to go under the knife to say good-bye to an unwanted double chin.
There are a few non-surgical options for dealing with a double chin. One of those options is the CoolMini. The CoolMini is a Coolsculpting applicator designed specifically for use in the under chin area.
Like traditional Coolsculpting, the CoolMini works by freezing away the fat cells in the chin area. It’s a non-surgical, non-invasive way to get rid of an unwanted double chin for good.
Depending on your goals, you can combine the CoolMini with a Ultherapy treatment to get a more youthful looking-profile without having to have surgery.
Fillers for Increased Volume
Injectable fillers, such as Juvederm Voluma, are other popular alternative facelift options for younger patients. While some fillers are meant to fill in creases and wrinkles on the face, Voluma is different. It creates a more youthful look by restoring or adding volume to the mid-cheek area. The result isn’t just a fuller, more youthful face, but smoother skin.
The results you’ll get from a treatment with Voluma aren’t identical to the results you’d get from a facelift. If you have considerable sagging, a facelift might be the better option, since Voluma doesn’t tighten the skin. Additionally, results from Voluma don’t last as long as the results from a facelift. While you might see results for up to a decade after a surgical facelift, after Voluma, results typically last about two years.
Botox for Creases
While a facelift typically focuses on the lower portion of the face, many people begin to see signs of aging in the upper area of the face, near the eyes, brows and forehead. While Ulthera can be an option for tightening a droopy brow, Botox is a good option if you want to minimize creases and wrinkles created after years of facial expressions.
Botox is an injectable that works by blocking the signals sent by certain nerves to certain muscles. Each treatment session provides results that last for about three months. Depending on where you have Botox injected, it can help smooth away the frown lines between your eyebrows, the crow’s feet by your eyes or horizontal lines across your forehead.
You don’t have to have surgery to look more youthful. In fact, mainly younger patients are better served by non-surgical facelift options than by traditional surgery. To learn more about each option, contact Dr. Paul Vitenas and the staff at Mirror Mirror Beauty Boutique in Houston, Texas, today. Call 281-810-9083 to schedule your consultation.