By Dr. Tracey Garner
The age-old saying goes ‘prevention is better than cure, and this could not be truer than when it comes to ageing prevention. Instead of Rejuvenation, the focus for our patients in their 20’s and 30’s is on the art of Prejuvenation.
Table of contents
- What is skin ageing?
- What is skin rejuvenation?
- What is skin prejuvenation?
- What can our DNA tell us about skin ageing?
- How to treat skin ageing with skin science treatments
- Treating/preventing skin ageing with botulinum toxin
- Treating/preventing skin ageing with filler
- Treating/preventing skin ageing with boosters
- Your prejuvenation team for skin ageing
What is skin ageing?
The natural process of skin ageing is characterized by features such as wrinkling, loss of elasticity, laxity, and rough-textured appearance. This aging process is accompanied by phenotypic changes in cutaneous cells as well as structural and functional changes in extracellular matrix components such as collagen and elastin.
What is skin rejuvenation?
Based on the French word ‘Rejeunir’, and its Latin root ‘Juvenis’, the word rejuvenation means to make young or to make new again. Much of our focus in aesthetic medicine is on rejuvenation: to turn back the signs of ageing and to repair damage already done. It is remarkable what can be done, but there is a much better approach for the younger generation and that is Prejuvenation.
What is skin prejuvenation?
With prrejuvenation the focus is on delaying and preventing the signs of ageing and maintaining your youthful appearance for as long as possible. In 2013, Ken Arndt coined the term ‘prejuvenation’ in order to introduce the idea that if you could successfully prevent the signs of ageing earlier in your life, you could reduce and even mitigate the need for rejuvenation later on.
Neutroceuticals, Skin DNA testing, preventative skin care, Botulinum toxin, dermal fillers, skin boosters, and even energy-based devices are all used to make sure that you look younger for much longer. It is however important to note, that the art of prejuvenation is best done within the context of a holistic skincare and medical aesthetics plan (such as with our Skin Artistry Programme), but it has to start with the skin.
What can our DNA tell us about skin ageing?
With a simple cheek swab test, your skin DNA can be tested in order to tell us exactly what factors we need to consider when designing a prejuvenation skincare plan for you. Skin DNA testing tells us what needs to be supplemented, which treatments are likely to work best, and what risk factors you have for ageing. It takes the guesswork out of designing the perfect ageing prevention plan and therefore forms the first step of our signature Prejuvenation journey, the Skin Artistry Programme.
How to treat skin ageing with skin science treatments
A beautiful skin truly creates the perfect canvas for all your features to look their best. The cornerstone of prejuvenation lies in preventative daily skincare, regular science-based skin treatments, and skin-boosting interventions.
Your skin is your biggest organ and it requires daily love to stay healthy. The single most important thing you can do for your skin is to wear a good sunscreen of at least SPF30 every day. This protects the skin against ageing and harmful UV exposure that causes DNA and collagen damage, reducing the strength and elasticity of the skin over time. UV damage results in fine lines, wrinkles, pigmentation, vascularities, and a rough texture.
Often these signs only show later in life, when the damage is already done. It is vital that the skin is protected with daily SPF from a young age in order to stay radiant and delay the signs of ageing. Over and above this, you need to invest in regular professional skincare, a targeted plan designed around your specific skin concerns and goals. Your treatment plan may involve skin peels, micro-needling, mesotherapy, PRP, and light-based therapies to strengthen your skin, treat any current skin concerns and prevent any long-term damage.
Your aesthetic doctor plays a vital role in your prejuvenation journey as ageing is, unfortunately, more than skin deep. Once you have created the perfect clear skin-canvas, we can start to focus on the deeper structures which unfortunately also age as we do. Your face contains 5 different layers and ageing occurs throughout these structures. The deeper layers of the skin and the subcutaneous tissue become lax as you age. Muscles can become more or less active, and the foundational supporting layers of the face (made up of bone and deep fat pads), lose volume, thereby reducing support for the skin. A curated prejuvenation aesthetics plan will address every level at which ageing occurs in order to ensure that you preserve your radiant youthful look. Here are some examples:
1. Treating /
preventing skin ageing with botulinum toxin
Botulinum toxin (a neuromodulator) relaxes muscles and helps prevent lines from forming. In 1985, Kilgman first described how muscle contraction creates folds in the skin. Permanent furrows result from multiple factors, including elastic fibre degeneration from chronic sun exposure and cumulative mechanical stress from facial muscle movement. These muscle relaxing injections prevent lines of expression from becoming permanent furrows by reducing the movement of the muscles and therefore skin. ‘Baby tox’ is the perfect prejuvenation tool and can be done in a beautiful, natural way in order to preserve beauty and natural facial expression.
2. Treating /
preventing skin ageing with filler
In the past dermal fillers have been used only to fill lines and to enhance features, but they also play a vital role in the prejuvenation journey. Correctly placed dermal fillers or dual-effect hybrid fillers can replace early foundational losses and in so doing also prevent the formation of wrinkles formed by saggy skin. They stimulate collagen formation and thereby strengthen supporting tissues. Improved skin quality is also an often-overlooked benefit of facial fillers. Gentle profile balancing is a favourite in the younger generation and can be artfully used to ensure that every angle is your best angle.
3. Treating /
preventing skin ageing with boosters
For deeper skin stimulation and collagen formation skin boosters and skin remodelers can be used to stimulate the skin in the deeper layers. Rather than just plumping and filling wrinkles (as with dermal filler), the slow release of Hyaluronic Acid (in the Bio Skin Remodeler we use at Dr. Nerina Wilkinson + Associates) also stimulates the production of collagen and elastin, in turn improving skin tone, hydration, and the appearance of fine lines. It is injected just underneath the surface of the skin where it disperses quickly and reacts with your own tissue to instantly boost hydration. The result is beautifully tightened, glowing skin for up to 6 months.
Radiofrequency needling combined with PRP (such as with the signature Morpheus Enhance treatment) has also become a go-to treatment at the Dr. Nerina Wilkinson + Associates practice as it helps ensure that your skin stays tight, toned, and flawless. This is however just one possible approach to the artistic world of rejuvenation.
YOUR PREJUVENATION TEAM FOR SKIN AGEING
The art of prejuvenation depends on the skills of a multi-disciplinary team of aesthetic doctors and skin experts in order to design a curated journey aimed at preventing ageing at every level at which it occurs in order to look radiant as you get older. Prejuvenation has become an art, and with talented aesthetic artists on your side, you have the power to design your face of the future.
To embark on your aesthetic couture journey, email capetown@drnwilkinson.co.za to get started today.
Written by Dr. Tracey Garner
