Autumn can be tough on skin. Humidity drops exacerbating the look of lines, crepey skin and wrinkles. Broken capillaries and summer freckles and sunspots look bolder against paler skin, which takes on a duller texture and color. That’s on top of the normal effects of the aging process on your skin.
As you age, your body produces less collagen and elastin, which are critical for providing structure to the skin and are key components in maintaining its youthfulness and suppleness. The average person loses 1% of their collagen every year starting in their early twenties. By age 45, you’ve lost 25% of your collagen, which in combination with fat loss and the downward pull of gravity, is why you can develop jowls, prominent folds around the mouth, loss of a sharp jawline and/or the appearance of a ‘turkey neck’. This natural aging process, coupled with sun exposure and other environmental damage, causes changes at the cellular level which speed up the aging process and make you look older sooner.
But you’ve got options to help you look younger!
Regenerative Medicine
Advancements in aesthetic and anti-aging medicine can actually reverse the aging process. Aesthetic and anti-aging medicine refers to research and treatments that extend the health of cells, repair damaged tissue and rejuvenate the skin and body. Dr. Julie Russak is an regenerative anti-aging expert, as scientific and technological advances in this branch of regenerative medicine has given her a deep understanding of exactly what happens within the body at the cellular level as you age.
Perhaps aging itself should be treated as a disease. The molecular processes involved in aging contribute to serious chronic ailments such as Alzheimer’s and heart disease, as well as changes to our skin, hair, hormones and metabolism. Calling aging a disease has empowered researchers to find innovative ways to treat and reverse the damage caused by aging, instead of simply relieving the symptoms of it.
With your skin, the earlier you use anti-aging and wellness treatments to slow down or reverse the aging process, the better you’ll look and feel in the long run. Aesthetic and anti-aging medicine helps you not only appear younger but also have more self-confidence and feel more attractive, all contributing to a happier life.
Summer sun is the toughest season on skin due to sun exposure. In the fall, it’s time to heal the damage. Here are six treatments recommended by Russak Dermatology Clinic to help you regain skin health and turn back the clock:
1. Laser Resurfacing
“Skin-perfecting lasers are one of the most effective ways to reverse signs of damage and enhance the quality of the skin. In as little as five days, your skin will appear clearer, firmer and smoother.” – Dr. Julie Russak.
Russak Dermatology Clinic offers many types of laser resurfacing, and often combine treatments for more effective results. Two favorites to reverse summer damage: 1. a combination of fractional laser treatments coupled with Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) treatments; and 2. Erbium laser resurfacing.
Fractional Laser/IPL Treatment
During fractional laser treatments, the laser is split into thousands of microscopic beams. Fractional laser treatments work on both the epidermal and deeper skin layers to more effectively reduce facial lines and wrinkles, sun damage and skin pigmentation, stretch marks and scarring. It can be used on any part of the body. By delivering thousands of tiny but deep microthermal columns into the skin, the laser is able to eliminate both unwanted pigmented cells and encourage new collagen formation. Healthy tissue around the targeted areas is unaffected, promoting the treated skin to heal faster.
IPL photo rejuvenation is a non-invasive procedure that targets pigmentation, sun damage and skin redness on the surface of the skin. Rather than using one invisible wavelength, it’s made up of several visible wavelengths (broad spectrum light) that treat a multitude of skin concerns at once. It treats the surface of the skin leaving you with a clear, even complexion.
Fractional laser treatments reconstruct and resurface the deeper layers of the skin, whereas IPL revives and perfects the skin’s surface. Used together, skin is restored from the inside out and quickly looks more youthful.
Erbium Laser Resurfacing
Erbium laser resurfacing is a treatment that can be used on the full face or specific areas like near the eyes, chest or neck. It resurfaces, tightens and brightens the skin and is particularly effective for reducing scarring, fine lines, wrinkles and hyper-pigmentation. The name, “Erbium”, comes from the crystal that generates the laser. It’s an ablative treatment that peels off the top layers of skin. This triggers the body’s healing response in a controlled way, targeting and correcting aging skin.
2. Chemical Peels
Chemical peels, which are typically used on the face, neck and hands, literally peel off sun damage by removing the outer layer of old skin. The body naturally sheds skin cells, a few flakes at time over the course of each month, but this process slows down as we age, resulting in dull, dry skin. A chemical peel removes the top layer all at once, revealing smoother skin with a more even tone.
During this procedure, our clinical aestheticians apply a customized acid blend that may include glycolic acid, trichloroacetic acid (TCA), salicylic acid, lactic acid, and more. The concentration used in the office is much more effective than what is available in at-home skin products. Chemical peels in-office are customized to each patient’s needs and can be as gentle as having no downtime, to days of shedding skin. At any strength, chemical peels improve your complexion by reducing lines, sunspots and other surface irregularities.
3. Biostimulatory Fillers
Biostimulatory fillers are a type of dermal filler that’s injected into the skin. There are two types of fillers: 1. traditional fillers, which are hyaluronic acid-based; and 2. biostimulatory fillers, which contain either calcium hydroxylapatite (CaHa) or poly-L-lactic acid (PPLA). Both immediately plump up the skin reducing the appearance of lines and wrinkles, but biostimulatory fillers also provide long term structure improvements by promoting the body’s natural production of collagen and elastin. Your skin looks smoother and younger over a longer period of time. Biostimulatory fillers last about two years, up to a year longer than traditional fillers.
Biostimulatory fillers are typically used on the face, neck, chest and butt. They can also help correct saggy arms and knees. To achieve the most long-lasting results, Dr. Russak prescribes a series of three sessions, one month apart.
4. Kybella®
Autumn’s crisper weather is a perfect time for a Kybella® treatment, not so much because it corrects summer’s skin damage, but because it’s scarf season, which allows you to transform without others noticing the process. Kybella® permanently reduces fat under the chin and the lower face when injected into the problem area. It contains deoxycholic acid, which the body naturally produces to break down and absorb fat in your food. When injected under the chin, it permanently gets rid of fat cells after two to four treatments. Some swelling, bruising and/or redness can last up to two weeks after each treatment, thus the reason for doing it during scarf season. Afterward, a defined jawline returns without the need for surgery. The face looks slimmer and more balanced.
5. Ultherapy
Ultherapy uses micro-focused ultrasound to lift and tighten skin. It was originally used on the face, under the chin and on the neck. Thanks to new precision ultrasound technology, it can now treat wrinkling, crepey and sagging skin on the body, too. This treatment is the best yearly refresh for fighting gravity and keeping everything lifted, to prevent the need for more invasive treatments later on.
Ultherapy stimulates collagen production and the supporting structures deep within the skin without damaging the outer layers, with little downtime. During the treatment, small amounts of ultrasound are directed at the specific problem areas, while Dr. Russak uses the Ultrasound to visualize the patient’s anatomy in real time, to get customized, targeted results.
Some people liken the sensation to snapping rubber bands. The lifting effect takes a few months for collagen to build, tighten and smooth the skin in the treatment area.
Ultherapy is the only non-invasive procedure approved by the FDA to lift skin on the neck, under the chin, eyebrows, face and body, counteracting the effects of gravity. Before Ultherapy, a doctor had to cut through the layers of skin, a surgical procedure, to achieve the same results. Ultherapy goes deeper than any other treatment for stimulating the body’s collagen and elastin production. Ultrasound imaging also allows dermatologists like Dr. Russak to see layers of tissue underneath the skin, ensuring the treatment is delivered exactly where it needs to be.
6. Plasma Pen
Plasma pens are used under the eyes and to lift eye skin. It’s a new, non-invasive treatment that uses molecular physics to take advantage of the fine layer of ionized gas, or plasma, that naturally exists along the surface of your skin. The key to this skin rejuvenating treatment is plasma’s ability to conduct electricity. The plasma pen doesn’t touch you. Instead, it converts the space between the tip of the pen and your skin into a plasma “spark” that instantly sublimates the targeted skin cells, turning them directly from a solid into a gas, vaporizing them and creating a sealed wound. The low-frequency energy emitted from the pen shocks the tissue, stimulating the production of collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid. Though you see some results right away, about three months later, after new cells form, your eyes look tighter, fresher and lifted, with improved texture and tone, and fewer lines and wrinkles.
For more information on these and other anti-aging treatments, contact Russak Dermatology at tel. 1-646-873-7546. www.russakdermatology.com
