Smokers’ lines refer to vertical wrinkles that form around the edges of the lips. We see them most often on women who smoke; however, men and non-smokers also develop these lip lines as they age.
Fortunately, there are several effective at-home and in-office treatments available to those experiencing this issue.
Why Do People Get Smokers’ Lines?
As with many things, the prevention of lip lines is often better than a cure.
For this reason, here, Dr. Maya Kato first offers some preventive tips you can use to avoid the formation of lip lines, and then options available to those who are displaying more advanced stages of lip lines.
Smokers’ lines form due to a breakdown of the structural integrity of the skin.
A protein called collagen gives our skin its elasticity and smoothness. When the skin has high amounts of collagen, it is tight, smooth, and wrinkle-free. Over time, and due to contributing factors such as repeated muscle movement, sun exposure, lifestyle factors, and the natural aging process, our collagen begins to break down. This gradually results in skin that is rough, flabby, and wrinkly.
Smokers’ lines can appear differently in different patients, depending on the extent of collagen breakdown and wrinkle formation.
Different Stages of Smokers’ Lines
Cosmetic surgeons generally categorize smokers’ lines into two different stages.
- Stage 1: In this phase, the lines are only visible during the movement of the mouth, such as when a person is eating, talking, whistling, or, yes, smoking. Someone at this point can consider changing some of their habits and daily routines to slow the formation of more permanent lip lines.
- Stage 2: At this point, lip lines have become permanent features of the face. They are present when the person is at normal rest; however, muscle movement causes them to deepen. Stage 2 lines require more significant intervention and can be harder to treat at home. Nonetheless, there remain some very effective in-house treatments for stage 2 smokers’ lines, which we’ll discuss later in this post.
Preventive Measures
Some of the best at-home remedies for smokers’ lines begin with good habits and daily skincare.
Obviously, one of the best things people can do for their skin is not to smoke. Smoking ages the skin and speeds up the breakdown of collagen, resulting in an appearance far older than your actual years.
Another major contributing factor to smokers’ lines is overexposure to the sun. Even people experiencing the beginning stages of these wrinkles can slow their formation by applying SPF 30+ sunscreen when they go out to enjoy the sunshine.
Some, however, require more significant intervention to address their smokers’ lines.
At-Home Remedies for Smokers’ Lines
One of the best available at-home solutions for smokers’ lines is retinol cream, which stimulates the body’s production of collagen, thus improving the structure of the skin by increasing the dermal layer.
Retinol helps skin maintain healthy, youthful quantities of collagen, which has beneficial effects on reducing the appearance of smokers’ lines.
A new and highly effective brand in the skin-structure collagen market is Alastin. Like retinol, Alastin improves the general health, moisture retention, collagen production, and elasticity of the skin to maintain a youthful, vibrant complexion.
In-Office Treatments for Smokers’ Lines
Other patients, particularly those with stage 2 smokers’ lines, will require a more significant intervention, generally in the form of an in-office treatment. Many of the most effective treatments for smokers’ lines happen in the office of an experienced, qualified dermatologist.
Most patients benefit greatly from either dermal fillers or neuromodulators, such as Botox, to provide volume to the skin surrounding their lips, or to neutralize the muscles responsible for creating the lines in the first place.
What is best for each patient depends on several factors, such as lifestyle, personal preference, and how advanced the wrinkles are.
While at-home treatments can be more convenient, the short amounts of time in-office treatments take and the incredible benefits they provide make injectables and neuromodulators a prevalent choice for many patients wishing to address the fine lines around their mouth.
Dr. Maya Kato of Aesthetic Art Facial Rejuvenation offers the highest standards of patient care and guidance in Palm Desert, California, as shown by her patient reviews and winning the Palm Springs Life Top Doctor award for almost a decade, consecutively.
Don’t hesitate to call 760-610-5558 or fill out her online form now to book your one-on-one consultation to begin eliminating your smoker’s lines and restoring a youthful, vibrant facial complexion.
Hair is often a display of vitality and an expression of character, which makes the thought of losing it unpleasant to many.
The harsh reality, though, is that one in five Americans deals with hair loss, with proportionally more men than women being affected.
Although there have been many anti-hair loss treatments offered throughout the years, many of them are not backed by valid scientific research. Some of these may even accelerate hair loss instead of hinder it.
For this reason, Dr. Maya Kato weighs in with scientific information surrounding what causes hair loss, and the proven best methods for preventing it. If you are struggling with hair loss in Palm Springs, Ca, reach out to Dr. Maya Kato to see what she can do for you.
Why Do We Lose Hair?
The visible part of our hair, called the “shaft,” grows from the hair follicle. Hair follicles, which are embedded in our skin or scalp, receive nutrients from the blood. This allows the follicles to synthesize new hair cells and grow the hair shaft.
There are a number of reasons why hair follicles may stop functioning correctly, such as male pattern baldness, hormonal changes, stress, and thyroid problems. Nutrient deficiency may also have a significant role in both men and women losing their hair.
In such cases, altering one’s diet to get more of a necessary vitamin may slow hair loss and encourage the production of healthier, stronger hair. For other patients, hair loss might be at more advanced stages, and cosmetic intervention with a procedure such as PRP might be the best option for you.
Which Nutrients Assist in Preventing Hair Loss?
Many nutrients are not produced naturally by our bodies, so we need to get them from an external source, a.k.a. our food.
Nutrients are essential to the basic functioning of our bodies as they are the building blocks of many of the body’s structures. Proper nutrition allows many of our bodily functions to take place, such as tissue healing and growth, enzyme formation, and chemical reactions that constitute a healthy, living body.
Of these vitamins, some of the most important for preventing hair loss and encouraging healthy hair growth include vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, folic acid, and vitamin C.
Vitamin A
Vitamin A assists our body in the essential functions of cell growth and repair, procedures vital in the production of healthy hair. Vitamin A rich-foods include the ‘traffic light’ fruit and vegetables – reds, yellows, oranges, and greens. Fish, eggs, and offal such as liver are also particularly high sources of vitamin A and should be included in an anti-hair loss diet.
Vitamin B6, B12, Folic Acid
Hemoglobin is the compound in our bodies responsible for the transportation of oxygen around the body. Healthy hair demands a constant supply of oxygen. When the body does not receive enough B vitamins and folic acid, hemoglobin production drops, and oxygen transport suffers. Eating proper amounts of animal meats, or leafy vegetables, broccoli, beetroots, and soybeans will provide your body with adequate B vitamins to sustain an appropriate hemoglobin production.
Vitamin C
Our body needs vitamin C to produce collagen, the protein responsible for the structural integrity of our hair and skin. As such, eating vitamin C rich foods such as oranges, tomatoes and peppers, watermelon, and leafy vegetables will keep your vitamin C levels high.
How Effective is Diet on Hair Loss?
The effect of diet on hair loss depends entirely on the reason driving the person to lose their hair.
For many patients, finding a proper nutritional balance in their daily diet can make significant changes in their body’s production and retention of hair. They can do this by including the foods listed above and ensuring they get the appropriate quantities of vitamins.
For others, such as those suffering thyroid and hormonal abnormalities or men with male pattern baldness, nutrition alone will not be enough to restore proper healthy hair growth.
Cosmetic Intervention
In such cases, cosmetic intervention is necessary. One advanced technology, known as platelet-rich plasma, or PRP therapy, involves injecting a concentrated serum of proteins essential for hair follicle health and hair growth into the scalp to encourage hair production.
Schedule a Meeting
Dr. Maya Kato at Aesthetic Art Facial Rejuvenation offers this extraordinarily safe and effective treatment for hair loss. If you are considering hair loss treatment in Palm Springs, CA, do not miss out on a consultation with one of Palm Spring’s leading cosmetic doctors. Call 760 610 5558 or fill out her online form now to learn more about what Dr. Maya Kato can do for you.
The winter months often lead to dry, irritated and itchy skin, which appears cracked, unhealthy, and feels horrible. But this doesn’t have to be the case.
Winter skincare isn’t complicated – it only requires some commitment on your part. By following these tips from Dr. Maya Kato of Maya Kato Aesthetic Art Facial Rejuvenation, you can expect to enjoy glowing skin all winter long.
Why Does Winter Dry the Skin?
One of the leading causes of irritated skin during the winter months is excessive dryness. The ambient air is partially to blame, but our behavior has a lot to do with it, too.
Colder temperatures mean the air holds less moisture – thus resulting in low humidity during the winter.
Low air humidity makes it easier for our skin to lose moisture due to the gradient between our skin and the environment. Because the air has little moisture, particularly inside where the air is warmer due to internal heating, it wants to absorb as much moisture as possible. As such, it sucks your skin dry.
Compounding this problem is the fact that during winter, many people are chronically dehydrated. Because we don’t sweat much in the winter, we feel less thirsty. Nonetheless, our bodies still require a minimum of one, ideally two, liters of water every day to function optimally.
When the air is draining skin of its moisture, and we are not adequately replenishing our water levels, the result is getting dry skin.
Yet another winter behavior that factors into excessively dry skin is hot showers and baths. While a hot soak can be just the thing we need after coming in from the cold, the high liquid temperatures open our skin pores – and yes, you guessed it – open skin pores release far more moisture than closed pores do.
One way of addressing dry winter skin is by considering a chemical peel. Chemical peels remove skin damaged during the summer sun and give you a new canvas to work with during winter.
The following tips also aim at helping you retain as much skin moisture as possible during the winter months.
Prepare Your Water Before Bed
Drinking enough water throughout the day is the first step toward making sure your body has the necessary amount of liquid to keep your skin moisturized, delicate, and smooth. For most people, two liters a day is optimal.
One handy trick is to place a full glass on your bedside table before going to sleep. The first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is to down the whole glass – this gets your day off to a perfect start and fulfills one-quarter of your daily water intake. Simple!
Finish Your Showers With a Cold Blast
We know – this isn’t the most appealing of suggestions, particularly considering the outside temperatures. But hear us out.
Finishing your shower with cold water has multiple long-term health benefits, including boosting immune function and improving blood circulation. It also closes your skin pores.
After a cooling-off period, your skin will better retain its moisture once you get out of the shower and get on with your day.
Moisturize
This tip might seem obvious, but moisturizing can make the difference between healthy, smooth skin or scaly crocodile hands.
Your shower is an ideal time to use a moisturizing body scrub. Once you seal your pores with the cold blast, you’ll trap the moisture in your skin.
Applying moisturizer after the shower and periodically throughout the day, mainly to body parts like the lips, cheeks, and backs of your hands, further encourage your body to hold moisture and keep your skin silky smooth.
Eat Right
This last tip shouldn’t come as a surprise either. One other complication that winter brings is shorter days and less time spent outside – for many of us, this means a deficiency in vitamin D.
Vitamin D helps keep our skin healthy, our moods up, and our bodies functioning correctly. By eating foods rich in vitamin D, such as egg yolks, cheese, liver, and most fish, we can supplement our vitamin D. (Of course, vitamin D supplements also work well for vegans or people with dietary requirements).
Next Steps
We’ve all experienced dry winter skin. The good news is that we don’t need to put up with it. With these four simple tips, and perhaps a chemical peel, you can enjoy smooth, glowing skin throughout the winter without having to make any significant changes to your daily routine. To discuss winter skincare, don’t hesitate to call Dr. Kato at 760-610-5558 or fill out her online form.
For many, Valentine’s day is the first important festivity of the new year. A celebration of love and friendship, Valentine’s day gives us a chance to express our full beauty and gratitude towards those we love in our lives.
To ensure you look in top form this Valentine’s day, Dr. Maya Kato in Palm Springs offers this advice on lip and facial care.
For everyone, the lips have the potential to be the most appealing aspect of their face. Full, sensual lips are the embodiment of youth, health, and beauty. Today, lips such as these are known as ‘trout-pout’ or ‘keyhole pout’ lips, and they don’t have to be reserved for the rich and famous.
What’s more, a life full of emotion means the skin around our mouths is constantly being moved and flexed as we laugh, smile, frown, and cry. This results in the gradual appearance of rhytides, or small skin creases and facial lines. An essential aspect of a perfect Valentine’s day face is smooth skin surrounding your full lips, giving you a healthy, vibrant appearance.
With the following advice, you, too, can achieve a set of full luscious lips and smooth skin this coming Valentine’s day. First, let’s take a look at why people are attracted to the trout-pout.
Why Full Lips?
Full lips in adults are what scientists refer to as “neotenous features” – juvenile physical traits possessed by an adult. Other neotenous characteristics, such as large eyes and protruding cheekbones, are also considered physically attractive features.
People find these traits attractive because of their expression in juveniles. It stems from an inherent biological urge to care for and protect our young. Large eyes, full lips, and high cheekbones signify youth and as such vulnerability, which provokes care-giving emotions in adults.
This is why many plastic surgeons are asked to enhance the fullness of people’s lips, along with making the cheeks fuller and the eyes larger through dermal fillers and eyelid surgery. Adults desire these youthful features because it makes others warm to them.
Lip Injections for Youthful Lips
For a long time, full lips, or the ‘trout-pout,’ were reserved for those with incredibly lucky genes or those who had access to pricy celebrity plastic surgeons. This is no longer the case.
A relatively straight forward cosmetic procedure, lip injections, give anyone who desires it the opportunity to have full, youthful lips.
Obtaining the ‘trout-pout,’ a la Kylie Jenner, is done by injecting dermal filler compounds into the upper and lower lips. Skilled cosmetic surgeons are able to provide patients with an array of lip aesthetics, including heavy upper lips, heavy lower lips, wide lips, heart-shaped lips, or downturned lips. The choice is up to the patient in how they wish their mouths to look – by choosing a trained, certified and experienced cosmetic doctor, patients will obtain the results they desire.
The procedure may appear simple, but to inject the correct quantity of filler into the precise area of the lips to provide the desired aesthetic is no easy feat. Many patients learn the hard way and choose inexperienced people to do their lip fillers, they end up looking overdone and unnatural.
When considering who will do your lip fillers, you should always ask about certification and training, and ask to see the doctors’ gallery of before and after photos on other patients.
To complement their now full, youthful lips, many patients complete their Valentine’s day facial rejuvenation by smoothing out the skin surrounding their mouths. This is done using other dermal fillers.
Dermal Fillers for Smooth Skin
Small facial lines inevitably appear on everyone’s face. Fortunately, cosmetic doctors have refined their techniques and now have a solution for any degree of facial creasing and wrinkling.
For creases beginning to form in the soft sensitive skin that surrounds the mouth, aestheticians administer exact quantities of small-compound dermal fillers. These allow precise smoothing of the skin by restoring lost volume and gently plumping the skin in areas of fine lines and wrinkles.
Like lip fillers, dermal fillers for the skin are not permanent solutions. But, quick treatments a few times per year can maintain your results and keep you looking youthful.
In preparation for Valentine’s day, the combination of these two procedures is just what the doctor ordered. Please call Dr. Kato 760 610 558 or fill in her online form to get expert advice from the Palm Springs top doctor to help you look your best.
Over the last few years, lip injections with dermal fillers have skyrocketed. What has been a go-to anti-aging procedure to eliminate fine lines and wrinkles has more recently also become a hit among younger patients interested in improving naturally thin lips.
With this growing popularity, there are a number of questions our Palm Desert cosmetic specialist receives about the procedure. Patients are curious about when they can start getting back to their normal activities following lip filler treatment. To help provide some guidance, we’ve pulled together our top recommendations for lip care after lip injections.
Post-Lip Injection Eating
As lip fillers are non-invasive, one of the perks associated with this treatment is that the entire procedure can be completed without undergoing anesthesia. While this might mean you don’t have to worry about fasting ahead of treatment, taking some care with your diet during the first few days after your procedure makes sense.
What you eat during the first days after lip injections can influence your comfort during recovery. As a result, we recommend that patients focus on staying hydrated and healthy. Washing down fruits and vegetables with plenty of water will help newly treated lips stay hydrated while delivering critical vitamins to treated cells. This can help reduce the duration of post-injection swelling and ensure that you enjoy your final results faster. On the flip side, we recommend avoiding spicy, processed, or excessively salty foods. While delicious, these can delay the healing process and make sensitive lips feel uncomfortable. Similarly, straws and water bottles should be on hiatus for the first few days after treatment as these can cause accidental puckering.
Sleeping After Lip Fillers
Are you a stomach sleeper? While it can be tough to monitor your sleep while you’re sleeping, laying on your back in an elevated position is critical to sealing in the perfect pout. As the filler material can take several days to firm up inside the lip, an accidental roll onto your stomach or side in the middle of the night can lead to asymmetrical lip shape.
To avoid these risks all together without sacrificing your sleep, we recommend setting up a pillow fort around your head to prevent unconscious movement during the middle of the night. Likewise, add a few extra pillows beneath your head to help keep the filler in the right position. Most patients only need to do this for the first couple of nights following treatment.
Kissing Post-Lip Fillers
Whether you’re dating, married, or enjoying the single life, one of the most common questions Dr. Kato gets about life with lip injections is about kissing. In particular, how soon after having lip fillers injected can a patient safely receive smooches?
For starters, while the procedure is non-invasive, patients can expect to experience some swelling, bruising and sensitivity during the first few days following treatment. While a quick and light peck might be fine, anything more intense can make the unpleasant side effects last longer. To help protect your new look and keep you comfortable, we recommend taking it easy on the romance for at least 72 hours following your injection or longer if you’re continuing to experience swelling and bruising.
Have Questions? Call Dr. Kato
Whether you’re new lip injections or returning for touch-ups, the team at Aesthetic Art is here to help. Dr. Kato and her staff have helped countless patients use this popular procedure to achieve their dream look. To learn more about how this treatment can transform your look, contact our office to schedule your visit today!
No facial feature is immune to the changes of getting older. While most men and women are familiar with the deepening wrinkles and sagging skin, an area where aging frequently comes as a surprise is the jawline. Over time, decreasing collagen and elastin production and the pull of gravity cause skin around the jawline to sink, creating the appearance of sagging jowls seemingly overnight.
While patients who were tired of having jowls previously only had the option of a facelift, new innovations have led to the development of revolutionary, non-surgical treatments that provide similarly transformative results. In recent years, procedures like thread lift and dermal fillers have become popular standalone options among patients looking for a non-invasive answer to aging skin. Although both are highly effective on their own, the results of combining these treatments produce the optimal outcome without surgery.
The Culprit Behind Sagging Skin
To understand how thread lifts and dermal fillers work together to create a rejuvenated appearance, it’s important to know what causes the skin to sag. While much of the blame lies on external factors like sun damage, inconsistent skincare regimen, or smoking, the biggest culprits are below the surface of the skin.
Our skin naturally and regularly produces collagen and elastin proteins, which add volume to the skin and keep it looking firm and healthy. The older we get, however, the less of these critical proteins our bodies are able to produce. This allows external factors to damage skin faster than it can heal, ultimately creating the fine lines and sagging skin that characterizes aging.
Along the neckline, diminished collagen production is compounded by the effects of gravity. As facial features lose important volume and skin loses its internal structure, gravity essentially pulls the thinning skin farther down on the face. This creates unflattering jowls, erasing facial definition and causing a certain degree of self-consciousness among patients. Luckily, non-surgical dual combo treatments have made correcting jowls possible.
How it Works
Like any other combination treatment, thread lift and dermal filler treatments are strategically used to complement each other and give you stunning results. When applied as a solution to jowls, patients can take better control over how they age without looking as if they’ve had work done.
Thread Lifts
During combination treatment, the thread lift is usually completed in order to enhance the structure below the skin’s surface. As the name suggests, thread lifts use surgical-grade absorbable threads to physically lift and reposition sagging facial skin. The threads have tiny barbs that pull back any sagging tissue and ensure a taut, natural look. The thread lift is an excellent alternative to extensive facelift surgery.
Dermal Fillers
One of the advantages of thread lift treatment is that as the tissue begins to heal around the threads, collagen production is stimulated. This new volume can further be enhanced with strategic dermal fillers. When placed along the cheeks, below the eyes and within the nasolabial folders, these injectables add the volume that restores a youthful look to aging facial features.
Get Started at Aesthetic Art
Why settle for a life with jowls? If sagging skin around your jaw and neckline is leaving you feeling self-conscious about your appearance, it’s time to schedule a visit to Aesthetic Art. During your consultation, our Palm Desert cosmetic specialist will guide you through your available anti-aging options, including dual rejuvenation with a thread lift and fillers. Together, you’ll build a treatment strategy that refreshes your overall appearance while keeping things looking natural. Call (760) 610-5558 or schedule your consultation online to get started!
Recently, the digital community went into a bit of a crazy spiral as people attempted to obtain a set of Kylie Jenner Lips. Some clever cookie figured out you can temporarily swell your lips by sucking them through a glass bottle, thus obtaining a fuller pout for an Instagram pic. They also figured out this is a pretty good way of incurring painful bruising.
If emulating your favorite Hollywood star’s trout-pout is your goal, let us recommend one of the following procedures instead of the glass-bottle method. You’ll get far more bang for your buck, and results that last much longer.
What you also might want to know is how different celebrities obtain their varied looks. In particular, some celebrities choose a more permanent solution to enhancing their lips, and opt for a surgical lip augmentation. Alternatively, many also choose less permanent but faster options such as dermal fillers. Here, we discuss three main types of lip enhancements that have different aesthetic results.
First, let’s have a quick look at why we are so lip-obsessed. This insider info may help you make a wise decision as you decide which lip-augmentation procedure is correct for you.
Why Do We Consider Full Lips More Attractive?
Though it may sound strange, our attraction toward individuals with full, pouting lips probably stems from an innate desire to care for that person.
Full lips in adults are what scientists refer to as a “neotenous” feature – meaning they are juvenile characteristics retained by an adult. Typically, juvenile facial characteristics include large eyes, protruding cheekbones, and full lips – physical traits that signify youth. And as humans are, at base, social, caring creatures, these juvenile physical traits prompt positive caretaking responses from other people.
The youthful nature of full lips makes other people instinctively warm toward that individual. But how can you best achieve full lips without sticking your mouth in a vacuum?
While dermal fillers are one option, many people also consider a more permanent lip augmentation procedure, such as one of the following.
Vermilion Lip Advancement
Vermilion is the pink, reddish part of the lip, and is what defines the lips on our face. Our lips are pinkish-red because the skin here is particularly thin, and reveals the blood vessels close to the skin surface. The vermilion border is the boundary of our lips’ delicate skin and our thicker facial skin.
As the name of the procedure implies, a vermilion lip advancement extends the pink skin of the lips. We can achieve this goal by removing some of the skin above the vermilion border, thus repositioning the vermilion border of the lips and making the pink skin more prominent.
Lip Lift
There are two different types of lip lift. One lifts the upper lip, and the other lifts the corners of the mouth. Both of these procedures result in a more friendly, relaxed complexion, and like the vermilion lip advancement, increases the prominence of the vermilion border.
During an upper lip lift, the surgeon excises some of the skin between the upper lip and the base of the nose. By doing so, they pull the upper lip up and out, thus revealing more of the pink skin of the upper lip.
A corner lip lift sets the corners of the mouth slightly higher, thus creating a small, permanent smile.
Both the vermilion lip advancement and lip lift are surgical procedures. If you would prefer a faster, less drastic fix for your mouth, you may consider the viral “keyhole pout” technique.
Keyhole Pout
Achieving the keyhole pout relies on dermal fillers injected into the upper and lower lips. These celebrity lip injections create a subtly sexy divide between the upper and lower lips. This lip augmentation procedure provides satisfying results, but they don’t last as long as their surgical counterparts.
If your lips lack volume, shape, and pout, consider a lip augmentation procedure. Many patients get highly satisfactory results with the vermilion lip advancement or a lip lift procedure, but if you are unsure whether surgery is right for you, perhaps choose dermal fillers first to see the results.
Dr. Maya Kato, founder of Aesthetic Art Facial Rejuvenation, is a board-certified plastic surgeon specializing in facial cosmetic surgery. Her clients have voted her Palm Springs Life magazine’s Top Doctor for seven consecutive years due to the unmatched patient experience she can provide. To consult her about your lip-enhancing procedure, please don’t hesitate to call 760-610-5558 now or fill out her online form to arrange a consultation.
If you wish to emulate the look of celebrities such as Megan Fox and Kylie Jenner, lip fillers provide a great opportunity to achieving perfectly kissable lips. Lip filling, which has grown to become one of the most in-demand non-surgical cosmetic treatments, plump, pouty lips seem to be a defining beauty movement of the late 2010s. When striving for the perfect pout goes wrong, however, we wind up with a set of the dreaded “duck lips.”
Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to ensure your lip filling procedure gives you the best possible results.
Because the demographics of people opting for lip fillers are so broad, ranging from 18-year-olds straight through to 60+, people must understand first what can go wrong with a lip filling procedure, and secondly, how they can achieve the results they desire.
How Can Lip Fillers Go Wrong?
The lip filling procedure is straightforward and quick. Injecting the gel into the lips takes only a few moments, and is relatively painless. What’s more, dangerous side effects are infrequent. However, the simplicity and popularity of this procedure have led to a lack of industry regulation that leaves many patients at risk of bungled jobs. Just because the process is easy to understand doesn’t mean the aesthetic eye and training of a board-certified plastic surgeon isn’t necessary when administering lip fillers.
If an inexperienced, untrained individual gives lip fillers, it may result in lumpy-looking, uneven, and unattractive lips. Furthermore, though rare, instances of anaphylaxis, extreme swelling, allergic reactions, and blood vessel occlusion are possible medical issues that can arise with lip fillers. Nobody but a properly trained and certified doctor has the qualifications to handle such emergencies.
Because of these risks, you should carefully consider who you choose to perform your lip filling procedure, including their qualifications and how long they have been working with injectables.
How to Ensure You Get the Best-Quality Lip Filling
Ensuring all the elements are in place to prevent your lip filling from going wrong is your responsibility. If you follow these three simple pieces of advice, however, you give yourself the best chance at obtaining the results you desire.
Choose the Correct Surgeon
One of the first questions you should ask the practitioner you are considering for your procedure is, “How many times have you done this?” Inevitably, the more experience a doctor has with lip fillers, the better they will understand their outcomes.
By first ensuring your doctor is board-certified and experienced, you have given yourself a good chance of receiving satisfactory lip filling results. However, to provide the best results possible, you should look at previous patients’ comments and experiences with the doctor. Look for any specific awards the doctor has won and their area of expertise. If they specialize in facial surgery, that is a bonus.
Prepare Properly
In the days leading up to your date with the doctor, you should get your body ready for a successful lip filling. Ways to accomplish this include avoiding blood thinners and drinking plenty of water.
Steering clear of blood-thinning products such as fish oils, aspirin, ibuprofen, and alcohol for seven days before your procedure minimizes the likelihood of bruising after your injections. Try not to drink alcoholic beverages for the week leading up to your procedure – if you do so, you will fully recover much faster.
Drink at least eight eight-ounce glasses of water per day. If you have trouble remembering to maintain this pace, there are plenty of smartphone apps designed to remind you to drink water. Get your body nice, relaxed, and hydrated before your procedure, all of which will contribute towards a faster healing process.
Recover Properly
Although most people need little to no downtime after a lip filling, your lips still need to adjust to and recover from the procedure.
Don’t rub your lips in the days after your injection. Doing so can displace the filler and cause unwanted results. Also, wait 24 hours after your procedure to exercise. Keeping your blood flowing slowly and steadily helps with the recovery process and gives the filler time to set properly.
Finally, remember it is normal if your lips are slightly swollen for up to a week after the procedure. Gently apply some ice when you can to reduce inflammation.
Dr. Maya Kato, founder of Aesthetic Art Facial Rejuvenation, is a board-certified plastic surgeon specializing in facial cosmetic surgery. Readers of Palm Springs Life magazine have voted her Top Doctor for seven consecutive years, due to her consistent ability to provide an unmatched patient experience. To consult Dr. Kato about your lip filling procedure, please don’t hesitate to call 760-610-5558 now or fill out our online form to arrange a consultation.
For many patients, two procedures are better than one.
When it comes to reversing the signs of aging, most consider it necessary to combine non-surgical and surgical procedures in order to get rid of sagging skin, wrinkles and shave off more than five years from their appearance. The facelift has proven to erase 10 to 15 years from your face, but it involves surgery, anesthesia and two weeks off from work.
New technology in the form of thread lift combined with dermal fillers have made it easier than ever for patients to erase five or more years from their face. Keep reading about how these synergistic, non-surgical procedures can be combined to create the ultimate age-reversal procedure. Call Palm Springs cosmetic specialist Dr. Maya Kato at 760-610-5558 to learn more!
What is a Thread Lift?
With a thread lift, the doctor inserts surgical threads just below the skin’s surface to pull back and reposition loose or sagging skin. The threads are made from polydioxanone, also called PDO and have small barbs, which grab and pull the targeted skin into a more natural, youthful look.
Thread lifts don’t simply improve appearances. The strategic placement of threads below the skin’s surface acts like a scaffold for new collagen to develop around. Over time, newly developed collagen helps transform skin’s texture and tackles other unwanted signs of aging such as wrinkles and creases. Best of all, thread lifts are completely non-surgical and minimally invasive. Unlike surgical facelifts, thread lifts can be performed in just one treatment session with an experienced specialist. Once complete, most patients are able to return to work without issue.
Thread Lift in Addition to Dermal Fillers
Far more people know about and use dermal fillers than thread lifts. Still, as a patient ages, dermal filler effectiveness diminishes. Filling cheekbones with a dermal filler like Voluma lifts the cheek, helping to tighten jowls. Still, overuse of filler to the cheek just puffs up the cheek without having much effect on the sagging skin below it. The thread lift physically lifts the skin, providing upward and backward traction.
The effects of the thread lift can be enhanced with dermal fillers, however. For example, a patient with deep nasolabial folds and sagging jowls gets the best results when combining both therapies. Dr. Kato inserts threads in the upper face with the thread angling toward the mouth and jowl. Pulling the skin back and up with barbed threads not only smooths wrinkles and tightens skin, it provides a scaffold for collagen-building which firms the skin as well. If this subtle procedure doesn’t completely relax the deep grooves by the nose and mouth, a little dermal filler will.
Together, Unstoppable
When combined, dermal fillers and thread lifts can offer patients a facelift comparable to surgical treatment or liquid facelift. Once skin has been lifted into a more youthful position with thread lift therapy, a new subcutaneous structure is created for collagen to develop around. As the threads begin to be absorbed by a patient’s body, dermal fillers can be added to help boost collagen production, reinforcing the foundation created by thread lifts. New collagen development further helps improve skin texture, tightening loose skin while helping rejuvenate a person’s overall appearance.
Combining these non-surgical procedures isn’t just good for a person’s skin health – it can also have a life-changing effect on their appearance. While traditional facelifts may effectively reverse signs of aging, these invasive procedures fail to stimulate long-term, wide-spread collagen production. Inevitable, facelift patients will have to undergo some form of touch-up in order to preserve their looks. By combining thread lift and dermal fillers into one long-term procedure and maintenance strategy, patients can look as if they’ve just undergone lengthy surgery without having to endure lengthy recovery. This degree of control over the aging process as well as long-term results is just one of the many benefits created by combining thread lift and dermal fillers.
Achieve Your Goals at Aesthetic Art
Wherever you are in your journey, our team of experienced cosmetic specialists is here to help. Dr. Kato specializes in providing non-surgical solutions to help individuals enhance their natural beauty while aging. Call 760-610-5558 today to schedule your thread lift and dermal filler consultation with Dr. Maya Kato today!
Sagging skin, diminished facial volume, deepening wrinkles – the signs that you’re getting older are certainly unwelcome. For many, the idea of dramatically defined cheekbones and taut, smooth skin can seem so far out of grasp, it’s hopeless to even contemplate how to achieve these supermodel features. Luckily, thread lifts are breathing new life into men and women over 50. In Palm Springs, Dr. Kato is among a select few experienced professionals who’ve used this procedure to help patients reverse unwanted signs of aging and regain a more youthful appearance. Here’s how:
How do Thread Lifts Work?
Thread lifts are revolutionary in how they address aging while simultaneously triggering the body’s own repair system. As the name suggests, thread lifts use surgical grade, absorbable sutures which are inserted with ultra-fine needles below the skin’s surface. Once injected, the barbed thread grabs onto sagging tissue and pulls it backward. This helps create the smooth skin and defined facial features most patients would otherwise need to turn to surgical facelift for.
In addition to being minimally invasive, thread lifts also have the valuable benefit of continuing to help improve skin texture long after treatment. Unlike traditional facelifts, which simply remove excess skin and tighten lax muscles, thread lifts simulate the body’s natural collagen production. Collagen is a critical protein responsible for helping skin heal and retain elasticity. As we age, our bodies begin to lose collagen production capacity, allowing wrinkles to develop and skin to sag. By inserting threads strategically across the face, this procedure triggers an important healing response while also creating a foundation around which collagen can develop. You will notice healthier skin texture and a reduction in the appearance of aging.
Who is a Candidate for Thread Lift?
Looking for another reason to consider thread lift? What about simple treatment and virtually no recovery?
For many patients on the quest for sharper facial features, the lengthy recovery time associated with facelift or neck lift can make the procedure out of reach or difficult to squeeze into a hectic work schedule with limited time off.
In contrast, thread lift allows patients with moderate to severe skin laxity to achieve results that are comparable to a true facelift without having to undergo lengthy surgery or recovery. Because of this, combined with the fact that thread lifts continue to improve facial features even after surgery, most patients are ready to sign up for their thread lift procedure as soon as they hear about it.
Ready for Thread Lift? Get Started Today
At Aesthetic Art of Palm Springs, Dr. Kato and her team have helped patients transform their appearance and improve their self-confidence thanks to thread lift treatment. To learn more about this innovative procedure, call our office at 760-610-5558 and schedule your consultation with Dr. Kato today!