Here’s a look back at a blog I did in 2013 …
Facial fillers comprise a very exciting area of esthetic medicine in general and regenerative dentistry in particular. The area is relatively new and it truly represents the cross section of art and science.
It has rapidly emerged with introduction of Botox, the patented version of botulinum toxin that is capable of relaxing human muscles. There are several areas where Botox is applied in medicine, but the most frequent usage is seen in the esthetic medicine to relax muscles of facial expression and thus provide “smoothing” effect to one’s facial appearance. Though not truly a “facial/dermal filler” Botox has been proven a tremendous success in anti-aging therapy and has opened a proverbial “genie’s bottle” and has paved the way for the entire scope of products and procedures capable of reversing effects of time and age on our faces.
The process of aging is very complex and occurs due to many factors leading to changes in anatomy and physiology of our skin and underlying structures. Among those are gradual breakdown of skin collagen (assisted by the way in part by the folds formation along the lines of facial expression), reduction in fat tissue under the skin, loss of skin hydration and accumulating damage from various environmental factors.
Similarly, the newer dermal fillers are designed to target different points of aging process and some of them are no longer just “fillers,” but work to stimulate reparative processes as well as providing volumetric filling. Hence, recently usage of such fillers has been dubbed no less than “bladeless,” or non-invasive plastic surgery.
Indeed we have seen tremendous difference that may be obtained by proper selection and administration of appropriate dermal filler therapy combined with Botox and this has been quite encouraging especially considering the cost of plastic surgery, which can be quite substantial.
Therefore use of these fairly inexpensive procedures has made benefits of anti-aging esthetic dentistry and medicine available to hundreds of thousands of patients. This is not to say that plastic surgery is dying. No, quite far from it. Many conditions and their severity still require a more invasive surgical approach, but at early and even moderately advanced stages of face and neck esthetic changes dermal fillers and stimulating injections paired up with Botox can offer the best value with great results.
I believe more and more people lead healthy lifestyles and simply refuse to grow old. And surely there is something modern medicine and dentistry can offer. Now if you combine everything with beautiful pearly smile and you will have a sure recipe everyone would love!
More on this topic next week …