Why can't we look young forever?

Good question indeed! Why can’t we look young forever? Today people tend to live longer and live a more healthy life. The work environment has also become so competitive that clients are looking for non invasive ways to achieve a more youthful appearance. As we grow older, the skin ages, showing signs such as fine lines, wrinkles and folds. This is brought about through the depletion of subcutaneous fat and the loss of collagen in the skin.

The traditional solution was a face lift to tighten the skin. This approach has a multitude of potentially negative concerns: complication can include a hematoma or an infection or a reaction to the anesthesia, and quite a few more. Today, a multitude of minimally invasive procedures are aimed at rejuvenation without the risk, recovery time, and expense of major surgery.

Augmenting the soft tissue has become a popular means of addressing defects in the skin that result from aging, photodamage and trauma.

Modern day augmentation of soft tissue dates back to the late 19th century when Neuber first used fat derived from the patient’s own body to correct depressed facial folds and defects. Injectable paraffin gained popularity in the early 1900’s. In the mid 1900’s the use of injectable silicone emerged and rapidly gained ground. However, due to a number of adverse effects, the use of silicone as a cosmetic agent has been banned.

The second half of the 1900’s saw an explosion in new technologies contributing to a cascade of new dermal implants. Injectable bovine collagen was developed in the 1970s. The most recent advances in dermal filling technology are in the form of hyaluronic acid derivatives, contained in products such as Juvederm, harvested and cultured autologous dermal implants, allogeneic products, and synthetically derived products. Continuing research promises that advances, such as recombinant human collagen, are on the horizon.