Science of Wrinkles
Facial lines and wrinkles
Ageing skin droops and develops wrinkles, lines and furrows. The severity of these changes in an individual depends on genetic tendency, skin phototype and exposure to environmental factors.
Dermatologists and cosmetic surgeons often use Glogau's classification when describing these ageing changes.
Mild – Few wrinkles, requires little or no make-up for coverage
Moderate – Early wrinkling, sallow complexion, requires little makeup
Advanced – Persistent wrinkling, skin discolouration with broken blood vessels and solar keratoses, often wears make-up
Severe – Severe wrinkling and furrows, solar keratoses, often wears make-up but it may not hide the ageing changes.
How do facial lines and wrinkles form?
Facial lines and wrinkles (rhytides) form because of the following factors: 
- Aging processes
- Sun damage
- Muscle movement
- Gravity
- Injury
- Surgery
- Acne
- Other skin diseases with a tendency to scar (e.g. discoid lupus)
- Smoking
There is often a degree of asymmetry to the lines, as people tend to smile or frown more on one side than the other, or consistently sleep on the right or the left cheek.
Fine lines
Fine lines and wrinkles arise because of irregular thickening of the dermis and because of a decrease in the amount of water held by the epidermis. This is mainly caused by sun damage and exposure to environmental toxins such as tobacco smoke.
F 
acial lines and wrinkles
Ageing skin droops and develops wrinkles, lines and furrows. The severity of these changes in an individual depends on genetic tendency, skin phototype and exposure to environmental factors.
Dermatologists and cosmetic surgeons often use Glogau's classification when describing these ageing changes.
Mild – Few wrinkles, requires little or no make-up for coverage
Moderate – Early wrinkling, sallow complexion, requires little makeup
Advanced – Persistent wrinkling, skin discolouration with broken blood vessels and solar keratoses, often wears make-up.
Severe – Severe wrinkling and furrows, solar keratoses, often wears make-up but it may not hide the ageing change.
How do facial lines and wrinkles form?
F 
acial lines and wrinkles (rhytides) form because of the following factors:
- Ageing processes
- Sun damage
- Muscle movement
- Gravity
- Injury
- Surgery
- Acne
- Other skin diseases with a tendency to scar (e.g. discoid lupus)
- Smoking
There is often a degree of asymmetry to the lines, as people tend to smile or frown more on one side than the other, or consistently sleep on the right or the left cheek.
Furrows
Deeper lines or furrows are classified as dynamic or static. Dynamic lines appear with movement i.e. the activity of facial muscles. Static lines are unchanged with muscle movement. Eventually dynamic lines become static.
- Crow's feet around the eyes are due to smiling and activity of the eyelid muscles (orbicularis oculi).
- Worry lines on the forehead are due to contraction of the frontalis muscle when raising the eyebrows
- Frown lines between the eyebrows are due to contraction of corrugator supercilii muscles and procerus muscle when concentrating or angry
A youthful face is characterised by an inverted triangle shape, with the cheeks representing the wide part and the chin representing the tip of the triangle.
As we age, the fat pads in our cheeks lose fullness and begin to slide down our face. This is most visible in folds running from the corners of the nose to the corners of the mouth, a sunken appearance around the eyes and jowling along the jaw line. 
Traditional anti-ageing treatments would focus on using a dermal filler to reduce the visibility of the nose to mouth lines. However, often a superior treatment will be to enhance the cheeks with a sub-dermal filler, which restores the face to the youthful, inverted triangle.
Aging brings with it wisdom, more leisure time and unfortunately, wrinkles and other maladies.
According to a 1998 survey, roughly half of those aged 35 to 62 consider themselves at least somewhat 
concerned about aging.
What is driving this anti-aging fever? Pressures associated with a competitive workplace make a youthful appearance a business advantage.
The desire to look only as old as you feel also is a factor. A recent survey conducted for the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) found that typical boomers "feel" nearly 10 years younger than they actually are.
Changes in Skin as it Ages
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The areas most often exposed to the elements, the face and hands, are also the areas most likely to show the first signs of aging. Among the telltale signs are lines that form around the lips.
But its the lips themselves that really speak volumes.
Frown lines are the deep creases that you see when you knit your eyebrows, furrow your brow, or wrinkle your nose. As you age, these deep creases form even if you are not making the face. This is because frown lines are the result of your facial muscles increasing the problem of wrinkling over time.
Frown lines are the most difficult to repair or prevent. However, you need not worry because there are many ways of preventing them or getting rid of them.
One way is to watch yourself in front of the mirror when you talk to someone over the phone. You will see that as you speak you are making certain faces when you say certain things. Say for example, you are discussing some problems that need to be fixed and then you get tensed.
You will see in the mirror that as you speak your lips may quirk and your brows may knit. These facial expressions cause those temporary folds over your forehead and in the skin of your mouth area.
These are expressions that you make every time you are tensed or stressed from family, work, and other things. Then you realize in time even if you are not doing it on purpose your face will show these expressions making your skin more vulnerable to wrinkles and frown lines.
You need to stop that bad facial habit now! You make these facial expressions when you are concentrating on a job or while interacting with family, friends or co-workers. Learn to focus on keeping your face smooth and worry-free, even if don't feel like it. This way you are able to keep yourself from spending the whole day reinforcing those frown lines.
While skin care products help maintain a youthful face, an individual’s age is all too often revealed by unsightly changes that are seen in the neck. In fact, many dermatologists believe that the neck has become one of the most neglected parts of the body. The skin of the neck is very thin, and is constantly exposed to the merciless pounding of environmental agents and pollutants, including the ultraviolet (UV) rays that are primarily responsible for premature aging. Despite these ubiquitous stressors, many of us stop our skin-care regimes at our chins. That’s why so many of us end up with youthfullooking faces sitting on top of older-looking necks. As you grow older, your accumulated exposure to UV radiation and environmental pollutants cause the breakdown of healthy collagen fibers and the production of abnormal elastin. When enough of this damage accumulates, special enzymes called metalloproteinases are released.
These enzymes help remodel your sun-traumatized skin by manufacturing and rebuilding new collagen. Unfortunately, they do not always work very well, and some of them actually end up breaking down collagen instead. When your skin repeats this process over and over, it results in the formation of weak, disorganized collagen fibers that eventually collapse, causing your skin to droop.
All too often, the result is wrinkling and sagging skin, particularly in the neck.
The neck and jaw line are critically important features of the adult face, and telltale signs of advancing age are often first noticed in these areas. For this reason, the uniquely elegant procedures discussed below are targeted to produce a more youthful and natural look with minimally invasive, targeted therapy.
Last Updated (Thursday, 04 March 2010 22:32)
