Everyone hates those wrinkles that radiate around the lips. And they only seem to get worse with age. What can be done? These simple steps will help to prevent these lines and can reduce their visibility.

1. Stay out of the sun.  It's well-know that sun damage causes wrinkles. Wear at least a 30 SPF sunblock and a hat when you're spending any time outside.

2. Don't smoke.  There are many good reasons to avoid smoke or to stop smoking.  Lip wrinkle prevention is another compelling argument to not smoke.

3. Use a medical-grade skin care regimen.  Ask your dermatologist or cosmetic surgeon about topical skin care products that can help with your particular skin type.  Tretinoin and L-ascorbic acid can both help with wrinkles by boosting collagen conent in your skin. 

4. Laser wrinkle treatments and chemical peels. These will create controlled injuries in the skin that stimulate new skin growth that tends to look smoother and more youthful. Lasers like Fraxel, ActiveFX, and DeepFX have been well established as excellent wrinkle treatments.  Traditional dermabrasion (not microdermabrasion) can also work well for lines around the lips, but it has a higher risk of hypopigmentation, when the skin loses it's color and looks porcelain white. 

5. Botox. A small amount of this popular muscle-relaxing protein can be injected into the muscles around the lips.  Just enough Botox or Dysport will reduce the lines that are caused by pursing your lips without changing the function of the lip muscles.  

6. Dermal fillers. The most popular injectable wrinkle fillers are made from hyaluronic acid gel, a substance naturally found in your body.  This gel can be used to fill under the wrinkles to lift them up and make them less noticable.  Juvederm, Restylane, and Perlane are among the most used HA fillers in the U.S. 

7. Combination treatments. Any or all of the above will help to reduce those pesky lip lines.  You can talk to one of the doctors at Allure Medical Spa in Michigan for a free consultation if you want to see what can be done for the lines around your lips. 

Unwanted scars can be a devastating result of cystic acne, leaving one with a dimpled, irregular skin surface.  Avoiding these scars before they occur is the most desirable course of action, but sometimes it is too late.  Treatments can alleviate the visibility of these irregularities.  The specific treatment options vary and should target the type of scar present.  Sometimes a combination of scar types are seen on an individual. 

A key point is to realize that acne scar treatments do not often eliminate acne scars, they can reduce their visibility.  Reduced shadowing and scar depth is the goal of treatment, but signs of the scars are often still seen.  In certain cases, the skin can look exceptionally smooth after treatment, but this is not true for all patients.  

Above is a diagram of acne scar types.  The deepest, ice-pick scars are the most difficult to treat.  Chemical peels (using the CROSS method with TCA) and laser resurfacing may be of the most benefit in ice-pick scars.  Other techniques for deep scars include skin punches and floating punch grafts.

Box-car and rolling scar types often respond better than ice-pick scars.  These are best treated with laser resurfacing and dermal fillers.  The Fraxel laser has an excellent track record when it comes to acne scarring.  Fraxel Restore uses fractional photothermolysis with an erbium laser to build collagen in the dermis.  Fractional CO2 lasers such as ActiveFX and DeepFX and Fraxel Repair are also excellent for these types of acne scars.  Fillers used to improve acne scars include hyaluronic acid (HA) products (Juvederm, Restylane, Perlane). In Michigan, HA fillers are the most popular form of wrinkle and injectable acne scar treatments, especially when performed in conjunction with laser resurfacing. 

An upper blepharoplasty or eyelid lift is a wonderful procedure that shapes the upper eyelid.  The result will frequently give you a more youthful, less tired appearance, brightening up the entire face.  The cosmetic upper eyelid lift does involve an incision, created with a laser, radiofrequency device, or scalpel.  But the scars almost completely disappear with time.  How does that occur?

The upper eyelid has a natural crease, usually 6-11 millimeters above the eyelashes, following a smooth arc.  The upper eyelid lift scar can be placed so that it coincides with your pre-existing crease.  In the photo below, the dotted red line shows the position of the eyelid crease, and the right side demonstrates an eyelid that already had a blepharoplasty, with a barely detectable scar.  

If you are considering aesthetic blepharoplasty, ask your surgeon if he or she plans to place the scar within the eyelid crease.  There are techniques that facilitate the scar/crease alignment.

Dr. Brett Kotlus is a cosmetic eyelid specialist that offers free consultations in the Detroit Metro area in Michigan. To learn more about cosmetic eyelid procedures, visit his website, EyeliftCenter.com. 

We all know that sun isn't good for your skin, but how bad is it?  This photo of a set of twins gives a dramatic impression of how severe the sun can be.  One twin was a sun worshipper while the other stayed out of the sun and was diligent with her sunscreen.  Can you tell which is the sun worshipper?

It is never too late to begin a skin care regimen that starts with sunblock, every day.  A broad-spectrum product (both UV-A and UV-B) with an SPF of 30 or greater is ideal.  Physical blocks that use zinc oxide or titanium oxide are excellent.  Products with oxybenzone should be avoided as it has been linked to free radical damage which may promote skin cancer.  

At Allure Medical Spa we can suggest some excellent medical-grade skin care products.  You'll need them to protect yourself from the Michigan sun!  A sunblock with a tinted cream will help you avoid the pasty look.  

If you are looking to reverse the sun damage and brown spots from the summer months, consider a laser resurfacing procedure such as Fraxel or ActiveFX.

(thanks to Dr. Martin Braun of Vancouver Laser for the link to this amazing photo)

Non-surgical nose shaping generally refers to filler injections that reshape the nose.  Fillers add volume underneath the skin and are most commonly used to treat wrinkles, but can also be used to inflate the lips or to change the appearance of the nose.  

Fillers to the nose can not actually make the nose smaller, but they can make the nose appear more narrow in cases where there is a flat bridge.  Fillers are also useful in certain cases to disguise a hump by filling around the hump, making it less obvious.  Irregularities or asymmetries after previous surgical rhinoplasty can also often be improved with non-surgical fillers.

There are several options when it comes to fillers that are used for nose shaping.  The most popular are made of gel consisting of hyaluronic acid, a substance that is naturally found in our skin.  These usually last about a year when injected around the nose, and they are fully reversible and non-permanent.  Restylane, Perlane, and Juvederm are all hyaluronic acid gel fillers and are the most frequently used dermal fillers in our cosmetic practice here in Michigan.  Other fillers including Artefill and Radiesse have also been used as non-surgical nose shaping methods.  

The treatment usually takes about 15 minutes and there is often zero downtime. To see if you are a candidate, call us for a free consultation. You can read more about non-surgical nose shaping on our website, here.