Quan H.Nguyen: Skin Rejuvenation

Skin Rejuvenation

Our skin is the most visible organ of our body, providing insight to our health and life style. Beautiful skin is often more desirable than any other body feature. Unfortunately, aging skin are realities for all of us sooner or later. Facial wrinkles and creases appear as the underlying collagen and elastin fibers begin to break down and wear out. While this breakdown is the natural aging process, it can also result from simple movements such as squinting, frowning, smoking, and smiling.

In addition, sun damage also plays a big role in the skin's deteriation, contributing to age spots, uneven skin tone, and wrinkles. It's no wonder that the quest for skin rejuvenation has dated back for centuries, with countless processes and regimens to reverse the hand of time. Major advancements have occurred in the field of skin rejuvenation. Fortunately, from offering topical creams to surgery, your dermatologist can make even the deep wrinkles and brown spots less visible, taking years off your appearance.

TOPICAL PRODUCTS

Topicals can range from creams to prescription drugs that are usually used to treat milder symptoms of aging, such as fine lines and hyperpigmentation. These products may be combined with other therapies to treat more advanced conditions.

Creams
Tretinoin: Topical tretinoin creams and lotions, work well on very fines lines and wrinkles. For best results, you must use retinoids continuously, or your skin will gradually return to the way it was.

Alpha and beta hydroxy acids: They work by peeling off the top layers of skin to speed the skin's rejuvenation; these ingredients are available in many nourishing creams that you can use daily.

Hydroquinone: A FDA-approved pigment-lightening agent, this also has an inhibitory effect on melanin syntheses due to its ability to act as a tyrosinase inhibitor. Hydroquinone fades away the darkness of certain freckles, melasma, and age spots.

Dermal Fillers
Collagen is a dermal filler, and is often the treatment of choice for creases caused by facial expressions, such as squinting, frowing, and smiling. They "plump up" or reduce wrinkles, furrows, and hollows in the face, giving the skin a smoother and more pleasing appearance. They can be injected anywhere on the face, or around the mouth and eyes only, depending on where the creases lie.

Artificial Fillers
Artificial implants is an ideal solution to correct deep nasolabial folds, marionette lines and give fuller lips. This synthetic polymer material feels soft and natural, and is cut to appropriate sizes for placement underneath the wrinkles. The procedure provides a permanent, yet reversible, correction to facial lines.

Botulinum Toxin: The trade name for the purified protein toxin produced by the botulinum toxin is "botox", can be safely injected on the face. Botox is used to smooth frown lines or crows feet, which are expression lines often found on the forehead, between eyebrows and around the eye area. It helps reduce motion wrinkles by paralyzing the muscles that created the creases in the first place. The lines gradually disappear when the muscles stop contracting.

SKIN RESURFACING

These techniques are all used for deeper wrinkles and creases. All skin types usually benefit, creating a smoother and younger appearance.

Chemical Peels
Dermatologists use chemical peels to treat wrinkles, age spots and freckles, as well as precancerous and cancerous growths. With a superficial peel, the patient may need six to eight treatments in a row to obtain enough benefit. The results of superficial peels last a few months, and done as a maintenance regimen for softer smoother skin. Chemical Peels are often included as part of a facial treatment in a Dermatologist's office.

Laser Surgery
Especially useful for wrinkles around the eyes, laser skin resurfacing can take years off your face. The healing times range from 1 to 3 days for superficial treatments, 7 to 10 days for medium-depth procedures, and 10 to 14 days for deeper treatments. In general, the deeper the resurfacing, the longer the results last. Dermatologists also use lasers to remove sun spots, age spots, "liver spots", freckles, and birthmarks.