Are Fine Lines Considered Wrinkles? | Dr. Angela Sturm

What causes fine lines and wrinkles?
Fine lines and wrinkles are caused by a combination of things that include your genetics, weight loss, weight gain, sun damage, wind, and skincare.

If you are never in the sun without sunscreen, your parents don’t have many fine lines or wrinkles, you have a consistent skin care regime and do a lot of preventative treatments, you may not have fine lines or wrinkles for a very long time. However, if you’re someone that works outside, you don’t wear sunscreen and you’re genetically predisposed to have more fine lines and wrinkles, you may see them earlier.

What helps with fine lines and wrinkles?
There are many treatments for fine lines and wrinkles, some that work and many don’t. The easiest way to prevent or help diminish them is by hydrating your skin with skin creams and by drinking water. The more dehydrated your skin is, the more you’re going to see the lines. Retinoids, retinols, and topical vitamin C are also easy ways to keep your lines to a minimum. You can find these over the counter or you can get prescription strength versions of thee products through your doctor.

For more intense treatments with greater results, you can choose from those with essentially no downtime such as a lunchtime laser treatment that stimulates collagen or treatments with an ablative or non-ablative laser that have some downtime. With non-ablative lasers, you’re red for two or three days, and you have to do a series of them, but they stimulate your body to make more fresh skin cells.

Ablative lasers actually take off the top layer of skin and your body heals with brand new skin over 10-14 days. The results are really dramatic. So, it depends on the starting condition of your skin and your goals. Do you want a really dramatic change or are you okay with more of a subtle change? What fits into your lifestyle and what’s the best way for you to address your fine lines and wrinkles?

That’s why it’s really important to have a consultation with a dermatologist or a facial plastic surgeon to talk about your skin and find out what can work for you. Not all of the above treatments work on all skin types and skin tones, and not all of them are specific to your goals.

When should I consider Botox or fillers?
The best time to start Botox is when you start to see a small line when you’re not moving your face. If you have elevens or forehead lines when you’re moving and talking, but whenever you’re completely still and not moving, your skin is smooth, you don’t necessarily need to start Botox yet. If you want to be preventative, you can try a baby-sized amount.

Fillers don’t necessarily work to be preventative, they just fill in an area to address volume loss and wrinkles. Once you see volume loss and lines, you can try fillers around the mouth, marionette lines, cheeks, or anywhere that you want some volume or wrinkle reduction. So it’s not preventing you from getting lines, but it’s preventing other people from seeing those lines for a while.

Have questions? Call or email anytime. I would love to hear them and set up a consultation.

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About Dr. Angela Sturm