Plastic surgery is often thought to be for people who are middle-age or older. It makes sense, since a lot of facial plastic surgery procedures are designed to help improve signs of aging in the face. But what about patients who want to boost their image yet haven’t quite reached that age range? Is a surgical procedure the only way to rejuvenate your appearance even if you don’t really need the full surgery?
There are actually several ways that you can give yourself a boost and feel better about your appearance without needing surgery. Plastic surgeons around the country, including Dr. Bustillo, offer different nonsurgical methods of refreshing and rejuvenating your face even if you’re in a younger age range. These include using injectables, facial fat transfers, and Kybella.
Facial Injections
You have almost certainly heard of at least one injectable used in plastic surgery – Botox, which is used to help you with wrinkles around your face. Another injectable that is similar to Botox is Dysport, another botulinum toxin that accomplishes the same results. These two fillers act as a paralytic when they are injected into your muscles, preventing them from contracting. When your muscles can’t contract, they can’t cause wrinkles in your skin. These are designed to treat dynamic wrinkles or those associated with facial expressions like frown lines and crow’s feet.
Another category of injectables are the dermal fillers, some of which works as structural boosters. Your skin needs different components to maintain its structure, including hyaluronic acid, which keeps your skin hydrated and flexible. As you start getting older, your body produces less and less of this acid, which affects the condition and appearance of your skin. Dermal fillers like Juvederm have a synthetic form of hyaluronic acid in them to give your skin better hydration and flexibility.
Dermal fillers can also add some volume to your face when you have areas where your skin looks hollow or has slight depressions. Radiesse is a dermal filler that contains calcium and acts like an implant when it’s injected into your skin to add some more volume and give you a fuller looking face.
Dermal fillers can be used in different combinations around the face depending on what you need. They are also significantly less expensive than a surgical procedure.
Facial Fat Transfers
Like dermal fillers, facial fat transfers are designed to add more volume to different areas of your face. In this procedure, fat is taken from your body and then injected into areas that need some help. The fat is typically harvested from somewhere like your thighs and is treated before being used in the injections. The fat transfers can be used at just about any point on your face – around your eyes and mouth, your cheeks, your chin, and even your nose. The injections are strategically placed so that the fat changes the shape and volume of the target area. For example, if you have a chin that doesn’t have a lot of character or blends in too readily with your jaw line, fat transfers can be used to add volume and give your chin some shape. The fat stays in place once it’s injected, giving your face a long-lasting boost.
Kybella
Kybella is another injection that is also referred to as the nonsurgical neck lift. Fat deposits begin to move downward as you get older and a lot of them settle underneath your chin. You can start to get a double chin and get areas of loose skin around your neck. A neck lift can correct both of these problems, but Kybella is a viable nonsurgical option.
Kybella is a synthetic form of deoxycholic acid, a chemical used to break down fat inside the body. The Kybella injections are used to introduce extra amounts of the acid underneath your chin, causing the fat to be destroyed. The fat cells then exit your body naturally without the need for incisions. The effects of the Kybella injections aren’t immediately apparent, but once the fat is gone, it’s gone for good.
Don’t Be Afraid to Get Started Early!
Just because you haven’t reached middle age yet, doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy the benefits of plastic surgery. These are only a few of the procedures that can help younger patients rejuvenate their appearance and feel great about themselves. You don’t have to wait to get started or be afraid that you need to wait until signs of aging are really obvious to start this process. If you aren’t sure whether you need a nonsurgical procedure, a patient consultation with a facial plastic surgeon is a great place to start.
Dr. Andres Bustillo is a board-certified facial plastic surgeon in Miami, FL. He is well-known throughout his community for his expertise in a wide variety of surgical and nonsurgical procedures and he has helped patients in different age groups look and feel amazing. You can schedule an initial patient consultation with Dr. Bustillo by calling his office at (305) 663-3380 or by sending him your information through the Contact page here on his website.