Instant Youth - Non-surgical and Minimally Painful Liquid Face Lifts

Most people know what a face lift is, and they know for sure what they are getting when they ask for one. But many don't realise that you can boost and lift your facial areas to give a youthful, refreshed look without surgery. With a liquid face lift, also known as an injectable face lift, you can see and vet the results as the procedure is being done, and the pain is barely worse than getting your pimples popped or brows tweezed at the beauty salon. And the best part is you can walk out of the doctor's office looking years younger in as little as 30 minutes.

A liquid face lift is a combination of botox and injectable dermal fillers and can be used in conjunction with newer techniques such as platelet-rich plasma or thread lifting for more dramatic results. Dermal fillers, specialised gel-like materials that a qualified physician injects to plump up sunken areas, fill in deep hollows and furrows, and can also be used to shape and sculpt facial contours to give you plumper lips, a higher nose or more youthful facial contours. Botox is then given to erase fine lines, relax tense muscles and correct imbalances in facial symmetry and contour.

There are many dermal fillers available on the market, most for specialised uses, and it is up to a skilled practitioner to know the best one for your intended result. Softer materials spread out over an area, but thicker, more viscous dermal fillers are more suitable for a more defined result - for a defined nasal bridge, perhaps.

To lift and enhance youthfulness of facial features, these are some commonly treated areas -

• Tear troughs - the tear trough deformity is a groove that extends from the cheekbone or zygoma and extends out towards the sides of the face. It is especially obvious in advanced age, as the skin is pulled downwards by gravity and fat pads atrophy due to aging. Fillers can easily plump out the line, restoring the look of fullness to the lower eye area.

Before and after tear trough fillers

• Fuller cheeks - a youthful face is characterized by full, rounded cheeks, that are high up on the face, with little to no bony areas obviously seen. As the face ages and sags the contours of the face are flattened and become lax and pouchy. This can be explained by what cosmetic doctors refer to as the triangle of youth and pyramid of aging -the uplifted contours of the firm cheeks of a youthful person forms a triangle, which becomes inverted, a pyramid shape, as the process of aging causes sagging and downwards mobility of facial fat to the lower jaw areas.

Fillers can greatly help to address the loss of volume in the upper facial area, and restore the appearance of youthful fullness to the cheek areas.

• Shadows and lines - We can recognise the youthfulness of a person's face at a single glance, as we subconsciously register the shadows and lines especially in the temple, lower eye and mouth areas. This picture shows how light reflects off a youthful face, areas that can be augmented by botox and  fillers to enhance the youthfulness of your looks. 

Light reflecting from the brows, nose, cheekbones, upper lip,  chin and earlobes is one way we subconsciously examine the age of a person's face

This woman's before picture shows deep under-eye hollows and reduced fat in the cheeks and temples. A liquid face lift has improved the light reflections so she has the facial profile of a younger person

• Erasing fine lines and correcting muscle tension - Cares and worries as well as the constant use of facial expressions over the years leave their mark on your face that is as telling as a yellowed birth certificate.  Botox owes its amazing popularity and success tot he fact that it is the quickest, simplest, most reliable way of immediately turning back the clock. The frown lines, crow's feet and brow lines are some of the most common areas that give the best instant results.

Some of the areas where botox can be used to best effect to restore a youthful look

This woman's frown lines, crow's feet and smile lines give her an aged appearance that can be effectively and nonsurgically treated with Botox and fillers 

For dramatic results, a surgical face lift is still the gold standard, especially for those of advanced age from 50 and above. Nonsurgical methods are a good alternative for those who aren't yet in need of a face lift, or who would like to have milder, less invasive procedures that improve in moderation, giving you results that are impossible to achieve in a bottle or facial. For the best of both worlds, a nonsurgical, liquid face lift can lighten and energize your look, and the results look natural, not overdone.  

- Cosmetic Medicine, MD

Dr. Liow Tiong Sin is an aesthetic practitioner who practices in Kuala Lumpur and Melaka, Malaysia. He has more than 12 years of expertise with non-surgical cosmetic treatments, and  conducts training courses for other doctors from all around Asia. To connect with Dr. Liow, Like Cosmedmd's Facebook page. medical centre website or email.