‘This is the one about vanishing facial volume. So the skin ages in many ways, as I have said lots of times before, and one of the ways that it ages is that we start to lose volume from the face, which is really annoying when you consider that as we age, most of us tend to gain volume to parts of the body where we really do not want it. To summarise you are adding volume to your body somewhere unwanted, but you are losing it from the face. That is one serious double whammy!

This middle face area starts to flatten out a little bit. The fat pads that our cheeks are made up of, start to slide. They slide inwards, they start to slide downwards. We have all this going on, you start to see the ‘nose to mouth’ lines, later still you get what we call the ‘marionette lines’ that come down from the corners of the mouth. Later still, you start to get this jawline ‘give’, we call this effect a ‘pre-jowl sulcus’. All of these effects are resulting in the:

Sad look

Saggy look

Tired look

This is something that happens to men as much as it happens to women. So guys, you are not getting off lightly with this one. Volume loss is just a normal part of getting older. Those of us who have a little bit more body weight actually do fare better in the sense that slightly more youthful look in the face.

Those who are slimmer, those people who are into the fitness life, will find that this turn of events is more of a struggle. I definitely notice that when I up my fitness regime, which I do from time to time, it affects my face instantly. In fact, so much so that people comment on it. I will get people saying to me, “Wow, you’ve lost weight.” They do not mean it in a good way, I can tell. Generally I have not really lost that much weight at all, but it just goes from my face. That is just how it is.

Deal with the Deficit

So what can we do about it? The answer is filler. So we can use dermal filler to help fight against the volume loss that you get in the mid face..

I actually do not like the terminology “filler”. It has connotations of the great big fat fake pillow cheek look.  Similarly to the term ‘chemical peel’, for me ‘filler’ sounds crude and does not really cover what we do with it.

The 1ml Myth

Despite the terminology, filler is the correct treatment. Instead of filling, think of it as ‘lifting, defining, sculpting’. In my practice, I generally aim for a natural look, unless someone specifically wants something more dramatic to suit their overall image.

With regards to quantity we need to move away from the ‘1ml’ approach. I am afraid that everything cannot be fixed with 1ml

We need to understand what to expect when we are using really, really small amounts of filler. Let me give you some perspective. 1ml is an average treatment for the lips. Consider the surface area of the lips as compared with the midface area (starting under the eyes and finishing at the jawline). Now you may be able to understand that 1ml is a drop in the facial ocean.

That being said, my job is to guide you and your job is to guide me. This may mean that we take a ‘softly softly’ approach and aim for a result over a period of time or we may opt to correct the issue in one or two treatments.

Yes dermal filler is the answer to your disappearing facial volume. Using hyaluronic acid products from the longer lasting Juvederm Vycross range, we can work to give your face the lift and definition that you had previously. The results will last around 18 months

An additional consideration is the chosen strategy that you are going for. If you prefer to go cautiously, and conservatively, it may be that you need a few treatments before you actually get to where you want to go. It may be that you plan a journey where you have a treatment, and then perhaps a couple of months down the line you do another treatment, layering on, layering on. Once you get to the point where you have achieved your goals, then you are on maintenance.