Facial Aging: Clinical Considerations and Anatomical Changes

Abstract

Aging face is a biological and progressive phenomenon that never stops. So far, the whole body presents similar senescence, but the face, as is the entrance and exit of our internal expressions and reactions, is the region that presents the most significant repercussions. The properties of the skin changes according to the period of life, and gravity and facial expressions exert mechanical deformation. Reduction of hydratation, losing the elasticity of the skin, diminution of the nutrition of the facial muscles, and fat tissue are responsible for profound modifications to the facial expression. In fact, as the age advances, the contents and casing modify developing an unbalance between them. Besides individually, structures present peculiar and specific modifications of the aging process; content and casing interfere among themselves, with progressive involutivity adaptations; and the resultant is a human being with a global physical presence of senescence. These alterations may be reversed surgically which is the main subject of the aesthetic reparation of facial aging. Achieving well balance between contents and casing may be performed by resection of redundancy of the skin of the face and neck and sometimes fulfilling with adipose tissue through fat grafting Avelar (Face lift. Personal approach. (Lifting facial. Abordage Personal). ISAPS Course and I National Congress of Spanish Association of Aesthetic Surgery. (ISAPS Course and I Congreso Nacional de la Asociación Española de Cirugía Estética – AECE), Valladolid, Spain; 2001).