by Lorrie Bryan

What do you see when you look in the mirror? Frown lines between your eyes, crow’s feet beside your eyes, a brown blotch here, a red splotch there? A face that looks too old to belong to you? Fortunately, there are steps you can do to look younger that won’t consume your budget or your life. And you can eliminate risk and get optimal results by utilizing the expertise of a plastic surgeon to help you determine which treatments are right for you. With the deluge of hype, it’s not always easy to discern the facts. We asked board-certifi ed facial and body plastic surgeons Drs. Louis DeJoseph, William Silver, and Marc Klein of Premier Image Cosmetic and Laser Surgery in Atlanta to share five non-surgical steps to a younger-looking you.

1   Caring for the Skin

Your skin will benefit from proper care using medical grade topical solutions and sunscreen regardless or your age. “Often medical-grade products contain higher concentrations of active ingredients that will actually reverse some of the signs of aging,” affirms DeJoseph. The skin needs exercise and recovery just like every part of your body. It needs to be stimulated in order to stay healthy and maintain collagen volume. This requires high-quality scrubs and cleansers, combined with retinoids to stimulate, and lightening gels to even out pigment. “There is no cookbook solution for every skin type. We carefully analyze each patient’s skin and customize a program to work for their individual skin.”

Additionally, he recommends high-quality physical sun blocks to all of his patients, and particularly in conjunction with other treatments. “Regular use of sunscreen is one of the easiest and most affordable things you can do to keep your skin healthy and preserve the results of other treatments. When physical-type sunblocks are applied, the sun’s  rays bounce off of the skin rather than penetrate it. These sunblocks are especially great for sensitive skin because they don’t actually penetrate the surface of the skin, and they don’t contain irritating chemicals.” They utilize materials such as zinc oxide and titanium dioxide to reflect the sun before it enters the skin and causes damage. This effect is not only for anti-aging, but skin cancer prevention as well.

2  Polishing the Skin

Lasers can be used to resurface the skin and dramatically improve the texture while reducing wrinkles, fine lines and sun damage. Lasers work by vaporizing the upper layers of damaged skin at specific and controlled levels of penetration. As new cells form during the healing process, a smoother, tighter, younger-looking skin surface appears. Recovery times vary, but often less aggressive resurfacing procedures require no recovery time.

One such low downtime laser procedure is the The ArticPeel. This treatment is a popular lunchtime laser peel offered exclusively in Atlanta at Premier Image. It is a true laser skin polish! Best done in a series of three to five treatments, DeJoseph recommends this procedure for people just beginning to see the effects of sun damage and aging on their face. Patients usually experience minimal discomfort and mild redness which last for less than a day.  You can wear makeup the same day.

Silver notes that laser treatments maximize the benefits of using medical-grade skin care products. “Topical solutions can penetrate the surface of the skin better when skin has been resurfaced.” They also add to this stimulation of collagen formation; as the skin heals, it has no choice but to form more collagen.

3   Reducing Discoloration

Patients who complain of redness caused by broken capillaries or rosacea, brown sun spots or freckles are good candidates for intensive pulse light treatments (IPL).

A non-ablative technique to treat the above conditions, IPL is ideal for patients with active lifestyles because the procedure requires no downtime and has a low risk of side effects. The IPL treatment delivers high intensity pulses of broadband light that is different from the narrow band light of lasers. The intense light is delivered to the deeper parts of the skin (dermis) and leaves the superficial aspect of the skin (epidermis) untouched. The thermal  effect of IPL also causes production of new collagen. From this collagen stimulation process you will feel a significant difference in the tightness and softness of your skin and a remarkable improvement in complexion, fine lines and wrinkles. The treatment takes 30 minutes to perform. Put on a little makeup afterward and you’re back on your way.

4  Relaxing Wrinkles

According to DeJoseph, everyone is a good candidate for Botox, the injectable that relaxes facial muscles and the wrinkles associated with them. “We use it primarily to minimize those vertical frown lines between the brows, horizontal forehead lines and crow’s feet. In older patients, it relaxes the muscles and softens the lines and in younger patients regular use can actually prevent the wrinkles from developing.” It’s truly the foundation for wrinkle prevention and reduction. Its effects last approximately three to four months, so put it on your list of things to do seasonally to maintain a youthful appearance. The treatment takes 10 minutes to perform.

5  Filling Wrinkles

Injectable fillers which simulate the body’s own collagen are used to minimize laugh and marionette lines, fill out check bones and add volume to lips. “The hottest new application, called the VUE™ (volume under-eye enhancement), was developed at Premier Image and fills under eyelid areas where dark circles are the result of fat bulging and are exaggerated by the loss of volume. This loss of volume creates a dark, hollow area called the tear trough. By placing a filler into this tear-trough area, there is less shadow and therefore improvement in dark circles, making you look more youthful and rested.”

New fillers are being developed and marketed every day, and the physicians at Premier Image are continually staying abreast of new products and procedures to produce the best results for their patients. “Not everything new is necessarily better,” notes DeJoseph. “We have had the best results with Restylane, Perlane, Radiesse, Juvéderm and Sculptra. We will customize the injectable treatment for the patient, and choose the best filler for them. Often this means using several different types of injectable enhancements to achieve the patients’ goals. All injectables are done with topical anesthetic or local anesthetic blocks to ensure comfort at all times.”

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For more information visit picosmeticsurgery.com or call 770.457.6303 to schedule a consultation. Dr. Marc Klein, Dr. William Silver, and Dr. Louis DeJoseph