Dear Dr. Seckel, I have broken blood vessels around my nose and cheeks. I also have deep mouth lines that you call nasal labial fold and also jowls along my jaw. You mention the IPL is good fro broken blood vessels but will it help tighten my cheeks and jaw line. Thank you, Betty, Wellesley, Ma.
Dear Betty,
The IPL also called Photo-facial is an excellent method for removing small blood vessels on the face. However the IPL or Photo-facial cannot tighten skin and correct the nasal labial fold and jowls. The most definitive procedure to tighten facial skin and correct the nasal labial fold and jowls is the face lift (See Photo Below).
There are non surgical medical aesthetics procedures which can tighten skin and camouflage the nasal labial fold and marionette lines, but they do not produce the dramatic results that you see in the above face lift picture.
Soft tissue fillers like Juvederm®, Restylane® and Radiesse® can produce very pleasing results (See Photos Below) However the fillers do not tighten skin and they are not permanent, but need to be repeated.
Above, filler injection into nasal labial folds, below filler injection into upper lip.
Skin tightening machines like LuxIR®, Thermage®, Titan®, Refirme®, and Aluma®, can tighten skin but achieve only about 20-30% of the tightening that a face lift achieves (See Photo Below courtesy Palomar and Dr. K. Rothaus).
For more information on facial rejuvenation, medical aesthetics, and plastic surgery read Save Your Face or contact me.
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Thank you for your question.
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