my journey to a rejuvenated self

There are so many options in cosmetic rejuvenation procedures today that no one has to look older than they want to. Like many people, your first cosmetic procedures have likely been injectables, like fillers and Botox, and you may wonder when it is a good time to move onto other options to help you stay young-looking. Here are a couple of signs that it may be time to commit to a more permanent option to keeping those wrinkles and sagging skin under control, and what procedures will work best for your specific issues. 

1. Your Cheek Filler No Longer Provides the Visual Lift It Used To

If you have been getting filler in your upper cheeks to fill out a little of that looser cheek skin and provide a visual lift to your entire face, then this likely made you look much younger again when your facial skin began developing that dreaded "droop." If it now seems like that filler is not providing the visual lift to your face it used to you, or you have had to ask your cosmetic surgeon to add extra units that still give you great-looking cheek bones but don't lift your lower face like they used to, then it may be time to opt for a mid- or lower-face lift instead or along with the cheek filler. 

If you are happy with the appearance of your neck, then just a mid-face lift is needed. This procedures involves your cosmetic surgeon making just a couple of small incisions around your ears, and then tightening up the skin and muscles on your cheeks and chin by pulling them up and out. It even helps improve the look of your under-eye area slightly and can even erase nasolabial folds, often called smile lines or laugh lines. If you have some sagging in your neck-area as well as your lower face, then a lower-face lift can tackle this issue, as well. 

2. The Botox in Your Forehead Isn't Giving You the Fully Rested Look It Used To

Botox works well in the forehead to not only erase lines and wrinkles, also to give you a well-rested look that makes you look younger. You may have also opted for a bit of filler in your brow area to give this area a virtual lift, as well. If it seems that your Botox is just not "working as well" as it used to, then it is likely not the botox effect that is changing, but instead further aging and drooping of your forehead and brow areas that Botox is just no longer enough to erase. 

To get back the younger, wide-awake appearance your forehead and brow area used to get from Botox, it is likely time to begin considering a brow lift. When performing a brow lift, your surgeon will make a thin incision along your hairline, and then pull the skin and muscles in your forehead up to bring your brows up where they once sat before aging set in. Then, a little extra skin is removed to also tighten the entire upper third of your face, and this will also erase any wrinkles in your forehead. The result will be the young and well-rested appearance to your entire brow and upper-eye area that your Botox and fillers used to provide. 

If your cosmetic injectables seem like they are not working like they used to, then they are likely just not enough to tackle the additional signs of aging you have developed since you began getting them regularly. It may be time for a different cosmetic procedure like a facelift to bring back that much-younger appearance you used to obtain from your injectables. As an added bonus, you won't have to have them performed more than once.