What’s the Secret to Getting Injectables Without Looking Overdone?

Today, there are many roads to a more youthful and vibrant appearance, but none are easier and more cost-effective than cosmetic injectables. In fact, Americans spent more than $1.1 billion on cosmetic injectables in 2019 alone. The relative ease and near-immediate results of cosmetic injectables make them an ideal choice for many, but they can be overdone, leading to an unnatural appearance that screams you’ve “had work done.” Thankfully, there is a better way.

At Rostami OPC, under the experienced guidance of oculofacial plastic surgeons Dr. Soheila Rostami and our team of aesthetic experts has extensive experience helping our patients achieve a fresher look with cosmetic injectables. Through our unique understanding of facial structure and how injectables should be used in combination, we can give you a liquid facelift that will draw compliments rather than questions.

Here’s a look at a few of our techniques for delivering cosmetic injectables without making you look overdone.

Understanding the aging process

To better understand what we can accomplish with cosmetic injectables, it’s helpful to quickly review what we’re up against when it comes to aging, as this is what sends most people to seek injectable treatments at our practice.

First, as you grow older, the years of exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays begin to catch up with you, as the connective fibers and cells in your skin begin to break down. This allows lines and wrinkles to form in areas that are highly active, such as around your eyes, brows, and forehead.

On top of photoaging, you also gradually lose collagen and elastin, the proteins responsible for the structural support in your skin. As a result, your skin loses elasticity and tone and begins to sag, which is most noticeable around the bottom half of your face. 

Lastly, when these two forces combine, your lips can thin and lose their shape.

Addressing the top half of your face

When it comes to the top half of your face, we target brow lines (frown lines), crow’s feet, and forehead lines with neuromodulators, namely BOTOX? Cosmetic, Dysport®, Xeomin? and Jeuveau?. These injections work by temporarily quieting the muscles that contract to form those lines and wrinkles.

When Botox was first approved by the FDA in 2002, there was considerable trial and error when it came to finding the perfect sweet spot between erasing your wrinkles and erasing your expressions altogether. Today, we know how to use neuromodulators in a way that allows you to express yourself naturally, while also addressing the lines that make you look older (or angrier) than you feel. 

Targeting the lower half of your face

After treating the top half of your face, we move lower to address, among other areas:

• Nasolabial folds (the deep lines on either side of your mouth)
• Marionette lines (the lines from the corners of your mouth down to your chin)
• Vertical lines around your lips
• Thin lips
• Loss of volume in your cheeks
• Sunken areas under your eyes

Dermal fillers are incredibly versatile, but they take an experienced hand and artful eye to ensure great results. At our practice, our team understands the architecture and structure of the human face, and we work with our patients to fill in and plump up areas for greatest effect.

For example, if your lips are thinning with age (or you were simply born with thin lips), we can add volume using fillers, all while keeping an eye on the right proportions for your face. Many people feel that ideally shaped lips are ones where the bottom lip is generally bigger than the top lip. 

When fillers are overdone on the top lip, it upsets this balance, leaving you with an overly puffy top lip that doesn’t look natural.

As another example, if your skin is beginning to sag, we can strategically inject fillers along your cheekbones to lift your skin and accentuate your face. This smooths out your great results rather than leaving you with a disconnected or “lumpy” appearance.

Pulling it all together

The bottom line is that the key to using cosmetic injectables is the understanding that no two faces are alike. Our team takes the time to sit down with you to review your goals, and together we come up with a plan that makes you look youthful and vibrant as opposed to frozen and puffy.

If you’d like to explore what cosmetic injectables can do for you, please contact our office in Reston, Virginia, to set up an appointment.