As time marches on, the collagen and elastin that keep your skin supple and elastic start to diminish. Years of sun damage, smoking, or plain old gravity can do a number on your skin. Eventually, you look in the mirror and notice sagging that wasn’t there before. Luckily, we offer many treatments to improve saggy skin from dermal fillers to facelift surgery at our Nashville practice.
In some cases, you may even want to combine two or more of the treatments for maximum effect. You can see our patient’s before and after photos showing their CO2 laser skin resurfacing and Reflection Lift facelift results.
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Here are 6 treatment options for addressing saggy skin:
Dermal Fillers
Dermal fillers, like JUVÉDERM® Voluma™, add volume to areas in the skin that are flat. It’s made of short-chain hyaluronic acid, a natural substance that draws water into the skin. JUVÉDERM Voluma is used to plump out sunken cheeks and lift the tissues of the face for a younger and more vibrant look.
Topical Treatments
These are treatments that are simply rubbed into the skin. They include vitamin A-based retinol and prescription retinoids. These treatments help the body make its own collagen and help scrub away the very top layer of skin cells, which are dead, dry, and dull. Because they unclog pores, retinol and retinoids are also excellent treatments for acne.
PRP
PRP, or platelet-rich plasma, uses the patient’s own blood platelets to revitalize dull or thin areas of the face. Once a small amount of blood is drawn, the platelets are separated from the other blood components via a centrifuge. These platelets have a wealth of growth factors, and when they’re reinjected into the body they stimulate the production of collagen and regeneration of capillaries, which helps with microcirculation. Microcirculation in turn brings nutrients into the skin to keep it fresh and young-looking.
Microneedling
In this therapy, we treat the skin by making tiny channels within it and adding growth factor into those channels. When the channels close up, the growth factors makes the skin tighter, smoother and more even. Microneedling also reduces the size of the pores and softens the look of wrinkles and fine lines.
CO2 Laser
This laser pinpoints only those areas of skin to be treated while leaving the healthy skin around it undamaged. The laser heat vaporizes the outer layers of the skin, which results in skin that’s smoother and more evenly toned. CO2 laser also promotes the production of collagen. Learn more about laser skin resurfacing in our related blog post.
Facelift Surgery
Also called a rhytidectomy, facelift surgery raises and tightens the tissue of the patient’s neck and face, giving them a more youthful look. The SMAS, or superficial musculoaponeurotic system, facelift elevates and repositions the connective tissue, fat, and muscles in the face and neck, providing a more youthful contour to the jawline and neck, and allows removal of excess sagging skin. You can see the type of results our facelift patients enjoy in their before and after pictures.
Want to learn more about any of these treatments from an experienced facial plastic surgeon and his team in Nashville? Contact us online or call us at (615) 942-8016 for a complimentary consultation. We’ll discuss your options and which treatment is best for your skin.
Originally published June 2017; Updated October 2021
