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Find a Skin
Rejuvenation Specialist
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 | | The Patient's Guide™ is the most respected online publication providing information about photoaging skin, skin treatments, and laser medicine. Our mission is to provide you, our reader, with unbiased, scientifically accurate information about wrinkling and anti-aging, as well as potential treatments. | | >>More About the Patient's Guide | |
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An Overview of Skin Rejuvenation and Aging Skin |
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Aging Skin
As you grow older, your skin undergoes a variety of natural, intrinsic changes
that affect how it looks and feels. These changes begin when you’re in your 20s,
although they may not become visible for many more years.
The most significant change is a degradation of two key proteins: collagen and elastin.
Collagen gives your skin its thick, smooth structure—its plumpness. Elastin enables
it to “snap” back into place after being stretched—after you smile, for example.
As collagen and elastin become damaged, the skin wrinkles and sags. Facial veins
develop and pores become enlarged. All the unwanted characteristics of aged skin
become more and more noticeable.
Aging also slows down the production of new skin cells—and the shedding of old ones.
And it leads to less active oil glands. The result: drier, itchier skin.
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Main culprit: the sun
Genetics helps determine how fast these skin changes occur. But several external,
or extrinsic, factors—most notably, exposure to sunlight—greatly speed up the skin’s
normal aging process. In fact, most—indeed, 90 percent—of the skin damage people
associate with aging (fine lines and wrinkles, enlarged pores, dryness, blotchiness,
spider veins, and brown age spots) is actually the direct result of sun exposure.
Age spots, for example, develop when sunlight causes skin cells to create more-than-normal
amounts of pigment (melanin).
One way to understand the sun’s role in prematurely aging your skin is to compare
the texture and appearance of the skin on your face and hands with that on your
inner thighs, which receive little sun exposure. Your dermatologist can also show
you with an ultraviolet (UV) camera how much the sun has damaged your skin—damage
that may not be entirely visible yet.
Reversing the damage
Not so long ago, options for reversing the telltale signs of age- and sun-damaged
skin were limited. Major surgery—facelifts, brow lifts, eyelid lifts, and other
procedures—was often the only effective treatment available. For some people, surgery is still a great option.
But thanks to remarkable scientific advances, damaged skin can now be resurfaced,
repaired, and rejuvenated without going under the scalpel. These non-invasive treatment
options include "lunchtime procedures" such
as chemical peels, microdermabrasion and vibrodermabrasion,
laser treatments and other energy-based therapies, dermal fillers ,
Botox , and other injectables, and highly effective medically directed
skin care products.
An individual choice
Which treatment is right for you? That depends on a variety of individualized
factors, including your age, your skin type and color, and the problem you want
resolved.
Your physician can help you choose the best option—or combination of options—that
will most effectively repair and rejuvenate your skin while also fitting into your
active lifestyle.
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Find a Skin Rejuvenation Specialist
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Amazing breakthroughs have changed the science of skin. Our doctors explain in this clip
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Ask The Doctor
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