Managing Your Looks

By: Dr Gertrude Huss
Created on 09th November 2009

Top cosmetic dentist and expert in facial aesthetics, Gertrude Huss of the Hill Street Clinic, explains why she has embraced the following guide to maintaining your looks: prevention, beautification, rejuvenation and correction 

The ageing process is inevitable and affects our bodies in a physical and emotional way. For some this is acceptable, but in today's society there is a growing demand for treatments and products that address not just the effect but also focus on the cause.

In cosmetic dentistry we have always focused on both aspects: cause and effect and we know that prevention and the optimal result are dependent on one another.

With my new clinic, not only did I combine cosmetic dentistry with non-surgical cosmetic procedures, but decided to embrace prevention, beautification, rejuvenation and correction into my standard practice.

Prevention

Starting a preventative program will inevitably lead to an extended youthful appearance and as society becomes increasingly image conscious so this can play a major part in a person's life and the way they feel about themselves.

Some people don't buy into the promises offered by creams that readily, particularly men. They are looking for a product with scientific back-up.

In my clinic I offer my patients a preventative programme consisting of a hibernation treatment using Botox and a skin health product such as Restylane Vital. Both procedures are backed by science.With the hibernation treatment the muscle temporarily 'hibernates'. The aim is to break the habit of frowning, and educate the patient in their facial movements so that one 'forgets' how to frown. Usually patients have several of these injections over a year or two until the frowning habit is broken.

Some people are not so bothered about lines and wrinkles but more about good skin quality and Restylane Vital restores skin lustre and glow by boosting the skin's light reflecting qualities. It also improves skin smoothness and skin elasticity.

Beautification

This is all about bringing out or enhancing someone's best features. You can take these people on a step-by-step journey of natural enhancement without doing it all at once. This is a journey that becomes a long-term relationship with the patient.  You embark on the journey together and you hold their hand through it.

Beautification is also for that instant occasion like weddings and anniversaries and significant birthdays and this 31-year-old patient came to see me wanting to look the best for her wedding day.

Firstly, we need to identify which areas to address to enhance her features best. Deep frown line and forehead lines are already imprinted in the skin at her age. The brow ridge is quite flat, and can benefit from volume enhancement to improve her profile appearance. There is also excessive thinning of her upper lip when smiling.

In the upper third of the face the underlying muscles are relaxed with muscle relaxing injections (Botox), and the appearance of frown and forehead lines diminished with Restylane.

A tiny bit of Restylane injected into the tail of the brow gives a gentle lift to the eye brows. We also do lip enhancement with Restylane Lipp; the beauty of this treatment is that it supports the lips' everyday movements such as smiling, laughing and kissing.

With a step-by-step beautification approach we accentuated her natural features so that they are still in proportion and harmony with the rest of her face.

Rejuvenation

The rejuvenation patient invests in a treatment plan. Our aim is to give them an optimal result - by doing that we put down a good foundation which is easy to build up from there. Top-up treatments boosts the duration of treatments, and it is not unreasonable to say that we are now seeing patients on 18-month maintenance programmes as the treatments are lasting longer. Good duration is key to patient satisfaction:

Correction

When time has taken its toll and you are past the prevention scale we move to the correction stage. We can easily restore loss of volume with the products we have available but the real challenge is to restore balance in the face as the problem is that it can easily be overdone. It is important to grasp the concept that youthful looks don't always look good on the older face.

With this patient we see how loss of volume has deflated the cheeks, thinned the lips and sharpened the chin. Adding natural fullness and definition to her lips and the surrounding structures, softens the signs of ageing and changes the appearance of her profile from concave to convex with all the facial structures in balance and harmony with one another.

In conclusion
Today, age truly is just a number. What that number actually looks like in the mirror is in your control.
CS&AM