About Face

Procedures Menu

About Face

C H A P T E R T W O

Aging Skin

Chapter Two Aging Skin Factors That Age the Skin How Skin Ages Hollowing Sagging Wrinkling Vitamin A Acid Cream Nonsurgical Face-lifts Injection Treatments Peels

AGING OF THE SKIN, which we’ll deal with in this chapter, is a constantly changing process that is controlled by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. In an article I wrote for The Canadian Journal of Diagnosis, with Dr. Eric Gage, we put the three main skin problems caused by aging - hollowing, sagging and wrinkling - into perspective, and I’ll share some of the less-technical information with you here.

Factors That Age the Skin

The effects of aging are less apparent in people with relatively dark, thick, oily skin - characteristics that are often determined by heredity and race. It is interesting that the blond cheerleader who was admired so much in high school for her flawless skin probably will age at a much faster rate than her olive-skinned, dark-haired classmate who was barely noticed. Of course, a patient’s general health and nutritional habits, as well as smoking and exposure to the sun, affect the aging process. So do sudden physical changes: for example, people who lose a lot of weight in a short time often appear to be much older.

Though everyone ages at an individual rate, you’ll notice some plateaus when aging is gradual, and periods when the aging process is accelerated. At twenty-five, you’ll notice the beginning of lip-cheek grooves that, by about thirty, will reach the corners of your mouth. At forty, you’ll start to gain a few lines on the forehead and under the eyes. At fifty, a few more lines will form in these same areas. Between fifty and sixty, there is an accelerated period of aging when all of the lines become more evident, and some sagging starts. Then there is a reprieve from sixty to seventy when you coast along without much change. Between seventy-five and eighty, the process accelerates rapidly, and this is when you literally appear to “shrivel” with age.

Extrinsic factors such as wind or the sun’s ultraviolet rays accelerate aging in exposed skin. Usually, it is facial skin that is most damaged: skiers, golfers and farmers often suffer premature aging of the face. Smoking accelerates aging by affecting the supply of oxygen to the blood. (Some heavy smokers in their early thirties complain about vertical wrinkles in their upper lip, but there is no proven connection to the constant pursing of lips around a cigarette.)

[previous page] [next page]