Crows feet are due to the eye muscles that surround the eye. These muscles are meant to close the eye, to blink, to protect the eye, etc. When doing these movements, they can affect the skin around the sides of the eyes. What results with this movement are the wrinkles that are commonly called the crowsfeet. Botox is usually the way that people get some relief for them. It usually takes about 8 – 12 units of botox on each side and the costs are around 10-16 dollars per unit of botox. Other options include laser resurfacing, fillers, or fat injections for these wrinkles.
Fat injections and fillers function to do the same thing. When we age we lose volume in the skin and in the whole face in general. What this does is bring the skin closer to the muscles of our face. When we were young, there was a greater distance from the muscles of facial expression and the skin. This distance was occupied by our skins fat and connective tissue. When you smiled when you were young, the muscles tended to glide under your skin. The fat in the skin above the muscles of facial expression allowed the skin to slide. This exact phenomenon occurs in multiple areas of your body. It is essential for muscle movement in fact. As we age, the muscles of facial expression become closer to the skin, when we progressively lose the fat and connective tissue within and under the skin. Hence, progressively when we smile are muscles of facial expression begin to exert more effects on the skin and these are manifested through wrinkling when we smile. Through fat injections, fillers, or the YoungVolumizer, this layer of fat between the skin and muscles is increased and the muscles of facial expression have less of a wrinkling effect on the skin.
Resurfacing through chemical peels, lasers, or dermasanding / dermabrasion essentially takes away the top layers of the skin to allow skin cells deep within our hair follicles, glands etc to “resurface” the skin. In the process of the procedure, we remove wrinkles, create a new layer of collagen underneath the skin, remove unwanted pigmenation and DNA damage, remove precancerous or cancerous cells, etc. The skin then becomes renewed with healthier cells, you have less sun spots, wrinkles and the tone and texture of your skin is rejuvenated.
I hope that was interesting for you!
Thanks for reading, Dr Young
Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington