It happens to nearly everyone at some point in life: They look in the mirror and see someone they don’t recognize. Even those who exercise regularly and eat a healthy diet often find that the face in the mirror belies the age they feel on the inside.
Especially for people in public-facing careers, time taking its toll can slowly make their job harder. Fair or not, there is a social perception of aging, and over time, career success quickly becomes less about knowledge and accomplishments and more about appearance.
What to Expect as You Age
Around 45 to 65, both men and women start to notice a difference in their facial skin due to four factors that determine the appearance of aging of the face.
Here are four of the changes that take place:
1. Overall Healthiness
Age spots, environmental wear, sun damage, dark discolorations, larger pores, and a loss of shine or vibrancy can add years to a face.
2. Loss of Soft-Tissue Structures
These changes occur in the outer skin and the subcutaneous tissue, which is lost as a natural part of aging, causing the face to lose volume. The roundness of the face, which gives it a youthful look, slowly thins and elongates. Activity and dieting can also cause subcutaneous tissue loss; people who run or lose weight tend to have very drawn and sunken faces because they’ve lost subcutaneous tissue.
Once the underlying tissue is gone, the outer skin layer begins to sag. Collagen and elastin, which tighten the skin, also decrease with age, resulting in neck bands with loose skin on very thin patients and full, loose, sagging necks with excess fat and skin on heavier patients.
The platysma muscles of the neck also separate with age, leaving a loose, hanging “sling” where a sharp, tight neckline used to be.
3. Loss of Volume in Underlying Bone Structure
The cheeks resorb, the chin shrinks, and the underlying cartilage of the nose changes—all adding to the aging process.
4. Loss of Lip volume
The vertical wrinkles around the lips get deeper as the lips grow thinner.
How to Turn Back the Clock
There are several ways to turn back the clock on the aging face. Among these are:
- Good skin-care products are one of the best defenses against the rays that age the skin. Starting with sunblock, good skin care can build a solid foundation for healthy skin that can optimize the outcomes of any cosmetic plastic surgery procedure.
- Dermabrasion, microdermabrasion, and skin peels address wrinkles, scars, and damage by removing upper layers of skin through “scraping,” “sanding,” or a solution, depending on the treatment. The result is a fresher appearance that improves texture and tone in both men and women.
- Lasering, a more aggressive treatment, includes a non-ablative light-based treatment that helps with pigment discoloration, sun damage, and vascular lesions, which zaps only the colored lesions so they peel off. It also includes micro-ablative treatments, which use fractional technology to punch microholes, allowing new skin to grow and create a tighter appearance (sort of like aerating a lawn).
- Fillers and fat grafting freshen facial appearance without much downtime. Botox is an injection treatment to reduce wrinkles, and fillers aim to restore the volume of the face, filling wrinkles at rest and lifting soft tissue of the face that has dropped due to aging.
- Noninvasive or minimally invasive surgery can be done quickly and with minimal downtime and recovery. These include blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery) to correct sagging and drooping eyelids and under-eye puffiness; energy-assisted liposuction using deoxycholic acid to tighten the jowl; and body contouring using cryolipolysis or CoolSculpting, which “freezes away” love handles.
As the face ages, the tissue and bone changes create more of an upright triangle, with a wider jawline, instead of an inverted triangle, with wider cheekbones and narrower chin—the traits of a youthful appearance.
Cosmetic plastic surgery aims to recreate the inverted triangle by lifting tissues to make the upper portion appear wider and fuller, giving the appearance that the lower part of the face is thinner.
The key with any of these treatments is to tailor them to the patient’s needs and wants, helping turn back the clock so that their exterior matches their interior.