The non-surgical facelift (in Melbourne)
Everything you need to know…
Unlike the traditional facelift which can pull the face tight, changing your expression and pulling features out of proportion, a nonsurgical facelift uses facial injectable treatments to help lift and restore volume. Leaving the scalpel behind, a variety of fillers and antiwrinkle injections are injected in various ways instead.
Addressing the facial ageing process, aesthetic results from a non-surgical lift can be excellent, and far more subtle than what was once produced through a conventional facelift.
Traditional facelift
Lines and wrinkles are not the only side effect of ageing. This is why pulling the skin tight with a facelift doesn’t address all the aesthetic problems of ageing – nor produce natural-looking results. Facial proportions can change after a facelift and the face can look stretched and tight. Years later, this tightening can produce odd-looking horizontal lines can also appear making the face look more unnatural.
A facelift is a costly and serious surgical procedure requiring general anaesthesia and considerable downtime. There’s also the risk of infection, pain and complications. And, if the results are not to your liking, a facelift is not reversible.
Understanding the ageing process
As we age, fat pads decrease (e.g. in temples, cheekbones, jawline, chin, around the mouth), musculature and bone structure changes, collagen levels decrease, causing the skin to lose its firmness and elasticity, and levels of hyaluronic acid decrease. (Hyaluronic acid is the substance that makes the skin look plump and dewy.) Lines and wrinkles are formed and our facial proportions start to change, with lines and shadows. The liquid facelift – regaining youthful proportions
The liquid facelift has many advantages over the traditional facelift. Facial proportions are rebalanced or preserved, there is no general anaesthetic, surgery or downtime. And, it can help slow down the ageing process by the anti-wrinkle injections preventing wrinkles – and dermal fillers
Below are just some of the aesthetic concerns a liquid facelift can help address:
- lowered brows, sunken temple volume
- Wrinkles around the eyes
- Hollows under the eyes
- Skin folds e.g. nasolabial folds
- Jowls and loss of definition in the jawline
- Sunken, flattened cheeks
- Loss of contour in the cheeks
- Thin, ageing lips
- Smokers’ lines
Treating Wrinkles with dermal fillers
Wrinkles can be successfully smoothed during a liquid lift. Dr Feldman prefers to use a cannula to inject wrinkles with filler as she can access several places from the one point, the canula also minimising the chance of any bruising. Additionally, anti-wrinkle injections can be used to relax wrinkle-inducing muscles from overworking.
Using volumisers for enhancements
Thicker volumising fillers can be injected into certain parts of the face, such as sunken cheeks, jawlines or brows to restore lost volume. Generally speaking, the thicker the hyaluronic acid formulation, the longer it will last.
Treating lips
Fillers can be used in a variety of way around the lips. Fine fillers can be used to treat smokers’ lines and fine lines close to the corners of the mouth, cheek and jaw, while volumising lip fillers can be used to provide fullness to the mouth.
Benefits of the nonsurgical lift
- No surgery
- No general anaesthesia
- Reversible
- Can decrease the chance of further wrinkles
- Gives a more natural-looking result
- No taught skin or strange lines
- Can add volume to cheeks, temples
- No ugly scars
Where is the clinic?
Dr Feldman’s Melbourne clinic is located at Suite 1102, 9 Yarra Street, South Yarra, Melbourne. She also tends to her patients in Sydney (Westfield Towers, Bondi Junction) and East Perth (Suite 2/10 Eastbrook Terrace) every six weeks. For full contact details, please see here.
How long will it last?
Depending on the type of dermal filler used (with thicker formulations usually lasting longer), fillers have been clinically proven to last anywhere between six months to 2 years. Injections around active areas of the face, such as the mouth and lips tend to dissipate more quickly; however, less active areas of the face, such as cheeks or temples tend to maintain the filler for longer. Anti-wrinkle injections can last anywhere between three to six months.
Is it painful?
Dermal fillers are relatively painless. After a brief pinprick sensation as the needle or cannula is inserted, little else is felt as the contents contain a local anaesthetic.
What is dermal filler made of?
Dermal fillers are a clear gel made of a compound called hyaluronic acid. This substance is found in the skin naturally but depletes as we age.
Are there any risks?
As with any medical procedure, there are risks involved with the use of dermal fillers. Most side effects associated with dermal fillers, such as swelling and bruising occur shortly after injection and many resolve in a few days to weeks. In some cases, side effects may emerge weeks, months, or years later. Read more about dermal filler risks here.
For more information about a nonsurgical facelift contact Dr Feldman’s office today.