The focus on youth in our culture has two groups of patients flocking to Montclair, N.J. plastic surgeon, Dr. Sheila Bond. The younger patients who want to preemptively keep the sands of time from showing, and the older patients who have a few more years at top earning levels and they want to extend that.
According to Dr. Bond, “People, for the most part, men and women want to look younger, want to look as young as they feel. So, they want to get rid of those lines and the wrinkles and the uneven skin tone and the sagging, they just want to look more youthful, not that they want to look 25 if they’re 45, but they would like to look 35, they want to look better than the age they currently are.”
Aging is a comprised of a couple of things – it’s wrinkles on the face, it’s elasticity of the skin and sagging, and it’s uneven pigmentation. To have to treat all those different aspects, you need different products and treatments from simple cleansing facials, glycolic peels, fillers, as well as Botox.
Dr. Bond sees the greatest success with patients who actively partner in their anti-aging efforts. In younger patients, she refers to their preventive efforts as “pro-aging.” She likes to get started with the basics, which include the right diet and the right exercises. For those who are exercising outdoors, lots of sunblock use, as well as moisturizers are required.
For those patients who already have sun damage, the doctor tries to get patients on a skincare line that has hydroxy acids and retinol or Retin-A in it to help get rid of the sun damaged skin, to help build up collagen, as well as help even out the complexion. “When you start with a good base, patients look better sooner,” stated Dr. Bond.
There is a current trend is for what are being called “lunchtime peels.” These are also chemical peels, which are glycolic acid peels that allow the patient to get back to work the same day, without a need of downtime. There are also laser peels, which are deeper and require more downtime. These treatments are where Dr. Bond starts with patients to get the skin to its best quality.
The next type of treatment addresses facial volume; as we age, we lose that volume in our faces, which is what causes the lines especially in the folds and around the corners of the mouth. Those areas are treated with fillers such as Restylane and Juvederm, which work by filling the skin lines, filling up the folds.
The latest thing in anti-aging is the use of Voluma, which actually goes on the bone of the cheek to give the cheek a lift. It gives a lot of volume to the face; if you lift up your cheek, the folds around your nose and even around your jaw line can be lifted up. This is helping a lot with people’s faces look younger.
Botox remains the gold standard to get rid of the wrinkles in the forehead, the crow’s feet, the bunny lines – those lines around the nose, and even at the neck to reduce the bands in the neck.
The other latest thing, according to Dr. Bond is the radio frequency machine. These deliver radio waves to the skin, which heat up the skin, not to an uncomfortable level, but these waves actually help the skin to make new collagen.
The key to anti-aging success, according to Dr. Bond, is to customize the procedures and treatments for the patient’s own skin type and age. It’s also important to recommend a regimen that they can maintain, so the patients have to partner in their skin care and anti-aging regimens outside the office. It’s also important for people to come back as soon as they start to see that they need it, not to wait, because maintaining the effect of the fillers actually increases the longevity of the fillers. For more information visit: http://www.bondplasticsurgery.com.