Facial Recontouring

As any artist will tell you, the way the light reflects from the contours of your face determines how nicely those contours appear to follow the curves most appreciated in nature, architecture and elsewhere, by the human brain.

Make up artists have a long history of fabulous success at enhancing beauty by adding light and shade, and more modern cosmetic techniques use the same principle in different ways.  Shadow can be your friend or your enemy depending on how you use it.  Since our light is generally from above much of our appearance is affected by shadow.

Sometimes the contours of our faces do not flatter our looks as much as they could and these can be changed significantly by illusion, with make up, or by actual contour change by many methods, such as tightening or volumizing or lifting.

The covering of your face is made of many layers, of course starting with the skin. Thicker tighter skin will always improve the look of the underlying structures, which in truth are not generally attractive without adequate covering.

Muscles, connective tissue and fat pads are in between the skin and the bone and their shape and size varies, as does the space they occupy.  Purists will know how to exercise facial muscles to try to get them to hold tissues tighter and grow bigger to volumise the face, but not too many of us know how to do that and not all faces can be improved this way.  Facial fat pads will be plumper in a more generously proportioned person but no one wants to have to choose between face shape and body shape.

Ligaments and connective tissue play a part and all these tissues will be in better condition in a healthy person with a good diet, who gets enough sleep and drinks enough water.

The areas that people often see as loss of contour are most commonly cheeks and jawline.  Sometimes loss of volume in these areas gives the impression of deeper lines from the nose to the mouth, or deeper mouth-frown lines, but those areas can suffer loss of volume independently as well.  Deciding what is the primary problem and determining how to get the most improvement with the smallest amount of treatment is a skill in itself.  Small changes can alter how the shadow falls or the light reflects, and make big improvements.

Addressing the mid face first is often the key, but in some people it is change to the lateral face that brings about the biggest improvement.  For others, there may be a different concern that should be tackled first to bring about the most meaningful improvement, as everyone has their particular concerns.

Addressing one area at a time may be the best way to get the most out of cosmetic medical treatment but in other cases it is important to support the changes made in one part of the face with complementary treatments in other areas.

There are many ways to tackle the contour of the face because all the different tissue components of the face give us options.  Rehydrating, plumping, redraping and recontouring are all possible but the best method can only be determined after a personalised consultation with an experienced practitioner.

Since so many medical and lifestyle factors affect your looks it is wise to consult with someone who has a broad medical background, as correcting suboptimal factors that may not technically be seen as disease can improve your overall appearance, and of course any medical issue that is contributing to appearance concerns may be picked up by the Cosmetic Physician first.

At Restoration Clinic we have practitioners who are skilled in multiple areas and can advise you on anything from make up tips and cosmeceuticals for the needle averse, to significant cosmetic medical treatments for those wanting obvious change.