Liquid facelift, anyone?

MANILA, Philippines - Does the idea of looking 10 years younger without any pain, surgery or stitches appeal to you?

If your answer is yes, then read on. The liquid facelift is here.

Gone are the days of your mother’s facelift that looked too pulled and unnatural like a plastic wrap had been put over your face. By observing children‘s faces, cosmetic surgeons have realized that what makes a person look young is the three-dimensional fullness of the face and its upward facial vectors.

 When one looks at a person 30 years and below, our eyes are led upward. As a person grows older, the eyes are led downward, giving the onlooker a feeling of heaviness and old age.

 I have been in the beauty business for 21 years and what is exciting about my job is that I get to constantly discover the latest innovations in cosmetic surgery.

Imagine a balloon that’s nice and plump and flying high. Now, imagine that same balloon as it loses air, folding on itself and sinking. This, in essence, is what happens to our faces as we age. We lose our collagen, elastin and fat.

 Now, we can use various fillers to replace our lost volume recapturing our fresh faces. The liquid facelift usually utilizes hyaluronic acid (HA), a natural component of our skin.

If our face is compared to a sofa, hyaluronic acid would be the foam, giving our face support and structure. The revolutionary thing about the new HA is that they come in different molecular sizes.

Before and after photos of Belo patient Julietta Gabule who did Juvederm liquid facelift

This is important because we cannot use the same filler on our cheeks as we do in our lip lines. The cheeks require larger molecules that occupy a lot of space for volume, whereas the lip lines need finer HA that will blend in and not produce bumps.

The other great thing about HA is that it’s a natural sugar that absorbs 100 times its weight in water. This hydrates the skin and gives it an attractive glow. 

Allergan, the same people who brought us Botox, have now come out with a hyaluronic acid filler that has an anesthetic already combined with it. This makes the injection painless. The whole procedure can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on how many areas need to be filled. The most commonly requested areas are the laugh lines and the lips.

A word of caution makes sure you don’t go for the over filled look. Go to a cosmetic surgeon who is aware of the importance of balance and symmetry. Make sure that your doctor has a lot of experience in aesthetics. Combining fillers with the Botox, Nefertiti lift and meso Botox would make the results even better.

 For more information and inquiries about the Juvederm liquid facelift, please call the Belo Medical Group hotline at 819 BELO (2356) or visit www.belomed,com or e- mail info@belomed.com.