Is It Ever Too Late to Stop the Aging Process?
Worried about sun damage, wrinkles, or other signs of aging skin? If your skin is on the mature side and you haven’t done anything to manage or reverse the aging process yet, it can be daunting. But don’t worry — it’s never too late to start taking care of your skin with the proper product regimen and wrinkle reducing treatments.
Common Complaints of the Aging Process
The most common skin conditions that tend to bother people or make them self-conscious enough to seek anti-aging treatments are wrinkles, sagging, dark spots, hollows in the face. If you’re worried about any of these, you can start by using a high quality, anti-aging skin care line formulated for your skin type. At a minimum, this should include a cleanser, toner, and moisturizer. Adding a serum can give you even more hydration and serums tend to better penetrate the skin. And using an eye cream before bed each night can help with crow’s feet — those fine lines that crease around the eyes.
Always look for the word “non-comedogenic” on skin care products, to ensure they won’t clog your pores, and stick with an alcohol-free/ethanol-free toner. Don’t skimp on moisturizer, since one of the primary reasons that skin shows age more quickly is due to loss of hydration.
Specific anti-aging ingredients include retinol, peptides, antioxidants like Vitamin C, or alpha-hydroxy acids (AHA), and beta-hydroxy acids (BHA.) And always use an SPF 30 or higher in one of your morning products to guard against further sun damage.
All About Wrinkles
Unfortunately, despite using the best anti-aging skin care products in the world, your skin will still age. Frequent facial expressions like smiling, frowning, laughing, and squinting cause the muscles in the face to tighten, which deepens the folds in our skin. The good news is that there are plenty of wrinkle reducing treatments out there.
Injectables like Botox can help “relax” the muscles surrounding a problematic wrinkle. The special chemical solution blocks nerve impulses which cause the muscles around the wrinkle to tighten, and over time the relaxed muscles mean a diminished wrinkle. Botox isn’t permanent, but can last from four to six months before requiring a touch-up.
Dermal fillers are also administered into the face via a needle, but they use hyaluronic acid to plump and firm the skin. Fillers are excellent options for under eye hollows, sagging cheek areas, vertical lip lines, thinning lips, and creases in the forehead, around the mouth, or on the sides of the nose.
Chemical Peels
If you’re not ready for injectables, a great option to add into your regimen is a chemical peel. This chemical solution is applied to the skin after cleansing, left on to work as an exfoliant, and then gently removed. It sloughs off the top layer of dead skin cells, revealing bright, fresh skin below.
Chemical peels can help reduce the appearance of dark spots, acne scars, and fine lines, as well as even out skin tone. They can also promote collagen and elastin production in the skin, which will help with skin’s firmness and elasticity. Receiving this treatment once every six weeks or so can go a long way to help reverse signs of sun damage and general signs of aging.
Contact North Pacific Dermatology
If you’re in the Bellevue, Washington area and looking for anti-aging guidance from a dermatologist, contact North Pacific Dermatology today for an appointment.