What do patients expect from facial ageing treatments? Rejuvenating and balancing the face of course but also maintaining a natural look1. This emphasizes the importance of taking the dynamism of the face into account in any aesthetic procedure.
Indeed, in daily life, the face is everything but static. Facial expressions not only reflect emotions but also convey signals that form the basis of interpersonal relationships and regulate our social interactions. With the onset of age, unpleasant facial expressions like sadness, sternness, tiredness and resentment tend to appear. These expressions lead to discrepancies between the patient’s image and personality often resulting in a loss of self-esteem and a reduced quality of life1-3. However, restoring a younger, fresher look should not translate into freezing the ability to express feelings.
Actually, what patients really want is their relatives to say “How do you do it, You never
change” 1
From an aesthetic standpoint, the vast majority of patients desire natural, individualized outcomes. Indeed, 9 out of 10 patients think that a natural result is the most important criteria after an aesthetic procedure 4. Most patients thus reject any stereotypes and procedures that could lead to excessive changes to their face. They simply want to look attractive, rested, fit and relaxed while smiling, laughing, or communicating any other emotions. This was recently assessed in a study1.
Therefore, for any aesthetic procedure, the treatment plan must necessarily take into account the facial dynamics and the emotional expressions of the face. The aim is to restore the reference face and recreate a state of mind both in the static and dynamic states; inappropriate facial expressions must be corrected while retaining the natural expressiveness of the face.
For botulinum toxin use, it is crucial to never freeze the face and to adapt doses to preserve emotional facial expressions. For hyaluronic acid injections, rheological properties must be suitable for facial dynamics (a filler should never be detectable) and their choice must be based according to the anatomic area. Prior to any treatment, it is essential to look at the movements of soft tissues
in order to determine if we have to fill the still or the dynamic compartments. The products must be able to adapt to facial movements in a manner that is similar to native tissue1: they have to become part of the dermal structure.
When a filler is implanted into the face, the gel is subjected to the interplay and sum of shear stress and vertical compression/ stretching forces, both of which cause the filler to deform6. Thanks to their improved dynamic rheological stretch and strength properties, TEOSYAL®RHA gels will be able to adapt to every injected area of the face, dynamic or not thus preserving the
natural expressiveness of the face.
Patrice Delobel, PhD
Medico-Marketing Director,
TEOXANE Laboratories
Avant Garde Issue 2