SMILE!

Have you been encouraged by others to "Smile"? Apparently, your expression gave off that you are unhappy, tired, worried, or grouchy. If this was a surprise to you because you were feeling quite neutral or positive, then chances are your face is miscuing the world. Why?

Go to the mirror and scrutinize the zone between the brows. Do you see a frown, or muscle tone in the frown area? Maybe you have a habit of frowning when you think, or squint, or when you do indeed experience a negative emotion. Many people do become quite habitual of this facial expression.

Now, maybe, as a result of years of frowning you now have etched in skin creases creating the illusion of a frown, even in the absence of any active facial expression. From the point of view of your observer, however, frown creases in the skin look like a frown expression, and they too imply a negative emotion such as anger, pain, worry, or disapproval.

It would be a shame to cultivate this impression in others, especially if it were untrue. No wonder others try to prompt you to "Be Happy".

Now, look at the mouth zone. Do you have deep creases between the nose and mouth on either side? Is your smile upside down? That is, do the aging cheeks pull the thin corners of your mouth downward? An upside down smile is opposite to the "Happy Face" that we all want to have. An upside down smile is "down in the mouth".

If this is the case, then the observer will be impressed by the downward vectors of wrinkles and mouth, the signals communicating "down in the mouth". Of course, the observer might respond by encouraging that you "smile", and that is what you next do. As you recruit the many large facial muscles of the smile, you will overcome the "down in the mouth" look, relaxing your partner in communication, until once again you relax your face, and it resumes its droopy position.

If you have no issue with your look, then it is "not broken", and there is no need for a fix. However, if this is a topic that you have thought about because it bothers you, then perhaps a few injectable cosmetic treatments will go a long way to improve your satisfaction with the face that you present to the rest of the world.

You might have already acquired an understandable opinion about Botox or Fillers, based on observation of Hollywood characters who have gone so far with their cosmetic applications that they become artificial and gawdy. Let these people be an example of "what not to do". Most folks want subtle and inconspicuous. This is the usual treatment goal after specialist/patient communication about the sought after look.

Patricia was disturbed for many of her 8 decades of life by the prominent frown on her forehead. Her mom had advised her to "stop frowning" when she was a child, and so Patricia felt somewhat responsible for causing her own frown lines. In fact, most people develop facial expression habits that are not realistically altered by conscious suppression.

Patricia knew that others in her family interpreted her frown as a symbol of stress, and she had always wanted a way to remove it without a surgical interruption in her life. She deferred while her husband was alive, but once he was blessed and gone, she elected to start a new life living nearby her children and grandchildren, without the frown.

She required Botox, to relax the specific muscles of the frown, and none others. Although the treatment is temporary, she learned that it takes only a few moments to maintain the relaxed frown, three to four times per year. Now her frown muscles would fully relax without any conscious effort.

Then, given that she was already in her 80’s, she did have an etched in skin crease that required "white out" in order to de-emphasize the observer’s attention from this negative facial feature. With a goal to diminishing the skin creases at her frown, a bioidentical filler product was used "sculpt out" the permanent skin creases. The frown wrinkles were deep, due to many years of repetitive contraction, but by the time she walked out of the office, just half hour later, her creases were much less conspicuous. The groove of the skin crease was filled gently with a gel biological that corrected the wrinkle defect. She went off to her new place of residence feeling much better about facing others, knowing that her negative expression had been neutralized, without downtime or significant risk.

The role of biological injectables in cosmetic enhancement is advancing rapidly as a result of strong patient satisfaction and safety.

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