Facial Volume Loss
What is Facial Volume Loss?
In the normal course of aging, there is a natural loss of underlying bony support, facial fat, collagen, and hyaluronic acid. The process usually begins as early as age 20 as the skin’s natural supports begin to break down, producing a gradual loss of definition in the cheeks, eye sockets, temples, lips, jawline, and forehead. The skin loses much of its youthful elasticity as a result of normal aging. However, behavioral or environmental factors can contribute to and even speed up the process.
Facial Volume Loss Treatments
Dermal fillers such as HA fillers are fully reversible when injected under the skin’s surface, dermal fillers can be used to plump lips, soften fine lines and wrinkles, and fill volume loss. We offer Biostimulating fillers such as Radiesse and Sculptra and temporary fillers such as Juvederm and Restylane to treat deep wrinkles, frown lines, smile lines, vertical lip lines, marionette lines, hollowed cheeks, and eyes, declining lip volume, and even acne scars. The most common areas for injectable fillers include under the hollows, sunken, and deflated cheeks, aged hands, chest and neck wrinkles, lip lines, chin augmentation, jawline contouring, and forehead hollows. All fillers are injected by our board-certified physician.
There are several other methods which can be used to replace the lost facial volume such as
The PDO threads are absorbable sutures and stimulate the collagen.
A cutting-edge form of regenerative medicine using the body’s own plasma to restore collagen in the skin.
As facial volume diminishes the skin will have acquired lines or wrinkles due to collagen and facial fat depletion. There is a hallowing around the eye sockets along with sunken temples, flattened cheeks, and loose skin around the jawline, better known as jowls. Fine lines appear on the lips and around the nose and fold form around the corners of the nose and mouth. The skin appears drier, thinner, and less pliable and vibrant.
Heredity, hormones, smoking, sun exposure, the normal aging process, extreme dieting, and exercise are the main causes of facial volume loss. However, certain medications may hasten the condition, as well as emotional stress, lifestyle factors, numerous traumas, and extreme “yo-yo” dieting, and frequent weight gain and weight loss, which cause a stretching of the ligaments that support the soft tissues of the face. Facial volume loss is accompanied by the loss of blood vessels, fat layers, and collagen causing the skin to sink in from the lack of these natural supports. Smoking, prolonged sun exposure, and severe illness also contribute to a general loss of facial volume. Prolonged stress from the loss of a job, family illness or death, financial problems, and hormone changes only accelerate the process.
Dr. Shanthala Shivananjappa MD
Dr. Shanthala is a board-certified, Harvard trained anesthesiologist, assistant professor at Yale University, and staff at Massachusetts General Hospital prior to opening her cosmetic medicine clinic. Her extensive experience working with plastic surgical patients in the operating room for more than 25 years, paired with years of training in non-surgical cosmetic procedures, has enabled Dr. Shanthala to have a unique perspective on Anti-aging treatments.
