Top 5 Ways to Treat Wrinkles

For many people, wrinkles are part and parcel of everyday life. People agonize over the fact that they have wrinkles when they first start getting wrinkles, but after some time, they get used to the fact that their skin is aging and they stop being bothered by it. Most people fail to realize that there are actually treatments available to both avoid and remove wrinkles, and that doing so is not as hard as they believe. This article aims to highlight the top 5 ways to treat wrinkle and to give readers some idea of what these treatments are and how they work to reduce and remove your wrinkles.

The first and most popular treatment for wrinkles is undeniably Botox. This treatment produces instant results and is extremely popular among busy, working women. Botox is essentially a toxin that, when injected into certain muscles, relaxes and paralyses those muscles that typically cause wrinkles, thus removing wrinkles by allowing the skin to relax. Botox treatments are a short-term solution, however, and for continued results you have to continue the treatments indefinitely. Once treatment is stopped, your wrinkles will eventually return and become as they were before treatment started. Many people choose Botox over other treatments, however, because of how fast they get results. Upon injection of Botox, wrinkles take a mere ten minutes to disappear.

Second, and one of the latest and most effective forms of forms of treatment to become available, is a Vitamin C lotion. This treatment has its origins in health spas, where it was commonly used after facials in order to maintain the soft and supple skin that was the result of a good facial. People soon realized that the lotion was effective at treating wrinkles as well, and companies soon began manufacturing for sale as a form of wrinkle treatment. The lotion helps improve the skin´s natural healing ability, as well as reduce the severity of wrinkles and fine lines.

In third place are collagen injections, which are a fairly recent development in the fight against wrinkles. This treatment involves injecting collagen under the areas of skin affected by wrinkles in order to ´plump´ up the skin and stretch out wrinkles. When done properly, this treatment can have your skin looking good as new, without any sign of wrinkles.

In recent years, as the fight against wrinkles has gained more attention, many pharmaceuticals companies have various creams and lotions designed to remove wrinkles or to reduce their severity. Most of these creams are available over the counter at local pharmacies or drug stores and they vary in their effectiveness. Most do produce results eventually, and the difference lies mainly in the length of time that you have to continue using the treatment before seeing positive results.

Acid or chemical peels have also been gaining popularity. These sometimes painful treatments involve ´burning´ the outer layer of skin to reveal tighter, healthier skin underneath, thus removing wrinkles and other blemishes on the skin.

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Plastic surgeons offering makeovers for yummy mummies Like many moms, Adrienne Chevalier tried various creams in hopes of reducing the stretch marks that accompanied her first pregnancy, but other than a natural fade from bright red to shiny white, nothing worked. Like Chevalier, many women these days are willing to go to extreme measures to become laser hot mamas. “We’ve definitely had more moms coming in over the last five years,” says Dr. Arielle Kauvar, clinical associate professor of dermatology at New York University School of Medicine and director of New York Laser & Skin Care. “A lot more women want to correct the problems they’ve developed during pregnancies.”

Those problems can range from stretch marks and loose belly skin to spider and varicose veins to melasma (brown pigmentation on the face from hormonal changes) to milked-out, deflated breasts. And although our mothers and grandmothers had to make do with cocoa butter, thick hose and hefty Cross Your Heart bras, today’s moms (many of whom fit snugly into the “yummy mummy” category) are heading to the plastic surgeon and skin care clinic for breast lifts, tummy tucks and the latest in laser treatments.

At Houston’s Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Center, Dr. Mark Schusterman started getting so many requests for the same postpartum procedures that he created Makeovers for Moms, a program that packages procedures such as breast lifts, tummy tucks and liposuction into one-fell-swoop surgery.

“A lot of these women have worked hard to look good before their pregnancy and afterwards they say, ‘This doesn’t work for me.’ “Hormones alone can wreak havoc on a woman’s body during and after a pregnancy,” says Dr. Joel Schlessinger, a dermatologist in Omaha, Neb., and president of the American Society of Cosmetic Dermatology and Aesthetic Surgery. “And many of the changes hit older moms harder. In my practice, we’ve seen a 50 percent increase in the number of women seeking postpartum treatments in the last five years. Ervin’s rejection of the “mother as martyr” mindset is fairly indicative of what author Jessica Denay calls a “hot mom,” a term that has more to do with embracing your sense of self than the surgically enhanced sex appeal of the “Desperate Housewives” set.

“It’s both a culture shock and a body shock.”

And then there’s the sticker shock. The clinic that helped Alabama mom Adrienne Chevalier feel comfortable in her bikini again charges approximately $3,500 for four Fraxel treatments. The Titan skin-tightening procedure Ervin received – which requires five treatments in all — costs about $5,000. Dr. Schusterman’s Makeovers for Moms can run anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000, depending on which procedures are cobbled together.

Postpartum price tag Below are 2006 national averages for surgeon/physician fees for common postpartum procedures, courtesy of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. — Breast augmentation: $3,600

— Breast lift: $4,220

— Laser treatment of leg veins: $400

— Liposuction: $2,750

— Sclerotherapy (spider/varicose vein treatment): $332

— Tummy tuck (abdominoplasty): $5,063

Spotlight on stretch marks Although there’s still no magic bullet for stretch marks, there are numerous new treatments on the market, particularly in the field of laser technology.

“Laser is currently the best way to get rid of stretch marks,” says Dr. Arielle Kauvar of New York Laser & Skin Care.

“Some people’s stretch marks will disappear, but others’ will only mildly improve,” says Dr. David H. McDaniel, assistant professor of clinical dermatology and plastic surgery at Eastern Virginia Medical School. Both doctors agree, however, that for early, red stretch marks, pulsed dye laser (which McDaniel refers to as a “red eraser”) is the most effective, although “it’s best on white fair skin and will leave ‘footprints’ on darker skin.” Older white stretch marks, the two agree, appear to do better with fractionated lasers such as Fraxel or Palomar Lux 1540, which appear to be effective on all skin types. According to McDaniel, this type of laser treats 20 to 25 percent of the skin at a time and requires approximately four treatments.