Nasolabial lines getting you down?

What causes nose to mouth lines?

In the UK men and women should typically have a fold in the skin that goes from the corner of the nose down to the corner of the mouth. As we age this can get deeper and patients often come into clinic and ask me to put filler in this crease. In nearly all of my patients this is the completely wrong thing to do. Understanding what causes the deepened nose to mouth line can help you see why simply inserting filler into this line does not give you the best result.

Very often the line appears deeper because the skin immediately above the line is bulging forward. The nasolabial fat pad as we age, gets bigger and becomes more prominent. Higher up from this and more central in the face is a deep fat pocket which deflates with age. This usually starts around your early 40’s, the combined effect of changes in these two fat pockets is deeper lines. As we age our skin also loses its elasticity, in turn leading the skin to drop and becomes less firm. To treat nasolabial lines we need to address both of these issues: fat and skin changes.

How do we treat them?

The deep pocket within the cheek is ‘reinflated’ and support added underneath the nasolabial fat pad. We use Hyaluronic filler (HA filler) to do this, in clinic we use the Belotero range by Merz. Belotero contains high quality products and has a brilliant safety profile, typically 2mls are used, sometimes more. The filler softens the nasolabial lines but also improves the appearance of the undereye area. It lifts the corners of the mouth. Look at the image above and compare. It also helps to improve the jowls in the lower face and jaw line too. You could just fill this line but you will achieve far better results treating the root of the problem. More info on Dermal fillers here: https://be-aestheticclinic.co.uk/dermal-fillers/

What else can I do to get an even better result?

HA filler will reverse the signs of ageing in the fat compartments within the face but it does little to improve the collagen and elastin in the skin you need to look for other treatments for this. Firstly you need to be on a really good range of skincare products to get your skin as healthy as possible. We stock Zein Obagi (ZO) Skin health in clinic and then you need to look at treatments that stimulate Collagen and Elastin production but that’s a whole other Blog article.