Medications
If you want to reduce fine lines and wrinkles, start with products that remove the top layer of skin and allow new skin to grow, a process called exfoliation. The best of the nonprescription options is alpha hydroxy acid (AHA). Deprived primarily from fruit and milk sugars (lactic and glycolic acid), AHA may reduce wrinkles by swelling your skin slightly, although exactly how it works is unclear. But because it strips off the upper layer of the skin, using an AHA makes your face much more vulnerable to the sun. So be sure to apply sunscreen often everyday--even if you use AHA only at night.
For a more powerful and effective topical treatment, ask your doctor for a prescription for topical tretinoin (Retina-A, Retrieve). Used regularly, this cream reduces the incidence of large wrinkles, age spots and surface roughness. It also makes the skin appear plump and glowing (which is why some women wear it under their make-up instead of just applying it at night).
A NUMBER OF CENTRES THROUGHOUT AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND are now offering Restylane injections as a treatment for wrinkles, as an alternative to collagen. Made in Sweden, this new gel comprises stabilised hyaluronic acid, which is a component of human tissue. There is no animal ingredient so there is less likelihood of a reaction to it than there is with collagen. It also lasts significantly longer than collagen, with repeat injections, not needed for at least six months.
BOTOX: A QUICK (TEMPORARY) FIX
Botox is the most popular cosmetic nonsurgical procedure done in Australia and New Zealand today. injections of Botox, or botulinum toxin (in purified and diluted form), work by stopping nerve impulses to injected muscles. Botox (made by Allergan) or Myobloc (produced by Elan Pharmceutics) relaxes the muscles and stops your ability to squint or frown, but without causing humbness.
Doctors can inject Botox into various spots (see illustration) including horizontal lines on the forehead, lower eyelids, crow's feet, lines on the side of the nose, the area between the nose and
upper lip and, occasionally, the muscle bands on the neck. Botox cannot be used for the furrows around your mouth, an area that has to remain pliable so you can talk, eat and pucker up.
Rarely, doctors 'miss' a targeted muscle with the syringe and a patient is left with, for example, a drooply eyelid. But just as the desirable effects of the injections disappear in three to six months, so do these unintended effects.
A Botox injection takes only a few minutes: you see results in one to seven days. Costs for a treatment vary, but average about $400. The injections generally aren't covered by insurance.
Procedures
If you want to erase deeper wrinkles, there are many options. One is skin resurfacing. All resurfacing procedures involve burning or stripping off the top layer of damaged, wrinkled skin, and controlling healing so that fresh, new skin can form. Generally, the deeper the treatment, the more dramatic the results.
Chemical peels help reduce wrinkles and light scarring. A chemical solution, available in a variety of intensities, is applied to the face. The stronger peels remove deeper wrinkles, but they also leave your face red for a longer period of time. In dermabarison, a rotating brush removes the top layer of skin. This can reach deeper layers of skin than chemical peels and is especially effective at removing heavy wrinkles, disfiguring marks and scars left by cystic acne. A gentler process, microdermabrasion, uses crystals to polish the skin. The results are like that of a mild chemical peel.
PROMISING DEVELOPMENTS
If you want to reduce fine lines and wrinkles, start with products that remove the top layer of skin and allow new skin to grow, a process called exfoliation. The best of the nonprescription options is alpha hydroxy acid (AHA). Deprived primarily from fruit and milk sugars (lactic and glycolic acid), AHA may reduce wrinkles by swelling your skin slightly, although exactly how it works is unclear. But because it strips off the upper layer of the skin, using an AHA makes your face much more vulnerable to the sun. So be sure to apply sunscreen often everyday--even if you use AHA only at night.
For a more powerful and effective topical treatment, ask your doctor for a prescription for topical tretinoin (Retina-A, Retrieve). Used regularly, this cream reduces the incidence of large wrinkles, age spots and surface roughness. It also makes the skin appear plump and glowing (which is why some women wear it under their make-up instead of just applying it at night).
A NUMBER OF CENTRES THROUGHOUT AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND are now offering Restylane injections as a treatment for wrinkles, as an alternative to collagen. Made in Sweden, this new gel comprises stabilised hyaluronic acid, which is a component of human tissue. There is no animal ingredient so there is less likelihood of a reaction to it than there is with collagen. It also lasts significantly longer than collagen, with repeat injections, not needed for at least six months.
BOTOX: A QUICK (TEMPORARY) FIX
Botox is the most popular cosmetic nonsurgical procedure done in Australia and New Zealand today. injections of Botox, or botulinum toxin (in purified and diluted form), work by stopping nerve impulses to injected muscles. Botox (made by Allergan) or Myobloc (produced by Elan Pharmceutics) relaxes the muscles and stops your ability to squint or frown, but without causing humbness.
upper lip and, occasionally, the muscle bands on the neck. Botox cannot be used for the furrows around your mouth, an area that has to remain pliable so you can talk, eat and pucker up.
Rarely, doctors 'miss' a targeted muscle with the syringe and a patient is left with, for example, a drooply eyelid. But just as the desirable effects of the injections disappear in three to six months, so do these unintended effects.
A Botox injection takes only a few minutes: you see results in one to seven days. Costs for a treatment vary, but average about $400. The injections generally aren't covered by insurance.
Procedures
If you want to erase deeper wrinkles, there are many options. One is skin resurfacing. All resurfacing procedures involve burning or stripping off the top layer of damaged, wrinkled skin, and controlling healing so that fresh, new skin can form. Generally, the deeper the treatment, the more dramatic the results.
Chemical peels help reduce wrinkles and light scarring. A chemical solution, available in a variety of intensities, is applied to the face. The stronger peels remove deeper wrinkles, but they also leave your face red for a longer period of time. In dermabarison, a rotating brush removes the top layer of skin. This can reach deeper layers of skin than chemical peels and is especially effective at removing heavy wrinkles, disfiguring marks and scars left by cystic acne. A gentler process, microdermabrasion, uses crystals to polish the skin. The results are like that of a mild chemical peel.
PROMISING DEVELOPMENTS
- Until recently, nothing much aside from Botox injections and surgery could really wipe out wrinkles around your eyes. The US authorities have granted permission to ICN Pharmaceuticals to market its NLite laser technology for lines and wrinkles around the eyes, as well as dermatological time lines elsewhere on the face. Unlike other lasers, the NLite can be controlled so it doesn't damage the delicate skin around the eye while it helps collagen replenish itself. More than one treatment may be required and full results (expect a 50% or so reduction of your crow's feet) aren't seen for 90 days. But no anaesthesia is required, and you can undertake your normal daily activities immediately.
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