What is Facial Volume?

Do you feel like you face is thinning or drooping? If so, volume loss may be the issue. Multiple changes occur in our faces over time that contribute to an “aged” appearance. There is no one, “magic” thing that if stopped will freeze time and keep you looking young. But, by replacing lost collagen with dermal fillers, the thin, or droopy appearance cause by volume loss can be reversed.

For instance, Botox works to keep your skin looking smooth by relaxing the muscles beneath it that make wrinkles when contracting. But Botox can’t help your cheeks look fuller or lift your jowls. These are problems that dermal fillers can help correct. Fillers are the go-to treatment of choice for age related changes that arise because of loss of facial volume.

What exactly do we mean by this? Think of your cheeks, the area around your mouth, your temples and even your forehead as having one or more full, soft and rounded “pillows” beneath it. When full, these areas have a soft, rounded appearance. Now, imagine the pillows as flat or worse, sunken in. Everything above it will look hollow and sunken in too, right? When this happens in all these areas at the same time (as it does with age), then facial features that were once full or convex, will become flat, concave, and/or hollow looking. When you combine this with thinning skin and lines etched over time from repeated facial expressions, you can begin to see an aged face that is hollow, harsh and angular-looking in addition to having a sagging or bottom-heavy appearance.

These changes can be corrected by volume replacement with dermal fillers such as Restylane Lyft and Restylane. Replacing lost volume helps restore youthful facial contours and these products have also been shown to help the body make more collagen and elastin, which keeps the skin looking firmer and smoother, another process that breaks down as we age.

The patient pictured below was injected with Restylane in the perioral area. She had lost volume around her mouth, which lead to the formation of “oral commissures” (those vertical lines extending from the corners of her mouth down and outward). Injections of Restylane replenished that volume and helped her achieve a fuller and smoother appearance in her lower face.