17 Nov Why does Ageing Change our Face so Much?
Why does Ageing Change our Face so Much?
The fact is that our faces change as we age. Maturing, gravity, photo-damage in time all take their toll on the skin.
Nowadays, scientists are discovering that the bone structure of the face also change as we age.
Varied things about the face alter with age. Muscle, skin, fat and other soft tissue layers change as the years progress. Our facial cartilage and bones structure also do too. Yes, change occurs, we’re all aware of this but is there anything we can do about it?
Should we take a moment or two and think about how our faces will look as our skin matures? If we take a god look at pictures that were taken of ourselves when we were younger, it can help give us clues about what we might look like when we’re older. If we take after our parents, elder siblings, aunts, and uncles we can learn even more about how we will look as we age.
This might sound a bit unpleasant, but if you care about your look, taking the time to better understand the probable changes will help you make wiser decisions regarding facial revitalisation.
The infrastructure of modern rejuvenation treatments is the redraping or repositioning of the facial skin— also known as a facelift. Other cosmetic procedures include tightening treatments, injectables, and skin smoothing which also pinpoint skeletal framework in the face.
Let’s take a look at the numerous ways facial structures alter over time and exactly how facial revitalization attempts can help. To understand all of the changes that our faces might go through, we need to stop the step by step approach —a nip her, a tuck there, and we need to think about a better-planned approach.
We all age differently, and the expected changes will happen in different measures at different times in different people. Women and men age differently too.
Why does our facial skin have to change when we age?
The human body’s skin is the biggest organ covering us from head to toe, and it carries the wear and tear for as long as we’re breathing.
Skin can be widely separated into three primary layers.
The outer skin layer or epidermis which consists of pigments and skin cells that give colour our skin its colour. The middle layer or dermis contains nerves, blood vessels, and hair follicles and oil glands. The outer skin gets all of its nutrition from the middle layer. The skin that lies underneath the middle layer is called the subcutaneous. It holds blood vessels, sweat glands, some but not all hair follicles as well as fatty tissue. Every layer of the skin has elastin and collagen fibers. The collagen gives support, and the elastin fibers provide flexibility and strength. The Ageing process impacts every layer of our facial skin.
The epidermis thins as we mature, regardless of the fact that the number of cell layers never change. The numbers cells that have pigments—decrease with age at the same time the remaining pigment cells continue to grow in size. The ageing skin looks paler, thinner, and more translucent because of these changes. Age spots may be visible in areas that have been exposed to the sun.
Ageing also makes the blood vessels of the skin weaker which can cause the skin to bruise, bleed under the skin and cherry angiomas, bright cherry red non-cancerous growths made up of blood vessels. These may differ in texture and size, from as large as a quarter of an inch to as small as a pinhead. They can seem smooth or stick out of the skin.
Our sebaceous glands from oil to keep our skin from losing lubrication. As we age, less oil is produced. The oil created in the female skin lessens after menopause; men see only a small reduction.
The subcutaneous fat layer also thins with age, reducing the skin’s normal insulation and padding, increasing risk of injury. It also makes it harder to maintain body temperature, making us more vulnerable to hypothermia during cold spells. One reason people lose their youthful rounded looks and appear gaunt as they age is due to the thinning of the fat layer on the face, especially the cheeks, chin, brows and around the eyes. Some people develop extra fat deposits under the chin and under the eyes. Loss of fat in some areas and fat accumulation in others can make the face appear unbalanced.
The skin normally becomes rougher, darker and less flexible over time. Our faces develop fine lines, furrows, wrinkles, skin folds and pouches. Blemishes and discolorations begin to appear and become more pronounced with age. Some people have oily skin while others have dry skin. These differences also play a role in how our skins age. They also matter in how facial rejuvenation techniques work, and their results.
Our skin and other changes also have to do with the environment, heredity, and so forth.
The primary factor that affects our skin is exposure to the sun. The amount of photo-damage differs in various parts of the body. The skin on our faces and necks get the worst damage. Although natural pigmentation offers some sense of protection, people with fair skin suffer the highest levels of sun damage.
Ageing changes facial muscle and other soft tissue layers
Facial muscles under voluntary control are called the skeletal or lean muscles and are attached to our skull. These are what allow us to express emotion by scowling, smiling, frowning or laughing. As we age, these facial skeletal muscles also begin to deteriorate. They lose their mass (or volume), strength and elasticity. Although the biggest changes appear while people are in their 40s or 50s, these changes typically begin in the mid-thirties and continue into old age.
Studies have shown that total muscle mass in the body decreases by nearly 50 percent between the ages 20 and 90. People are, on average, likely to lose about 30 percent of their strength between the ages 50 and 70; followed by another 30 percent by the time they reach 80. Past the age of 40, we lose approximately one percent of our muscle mass each year. The relationship between loss of strength and loss of muscle mass in mammals is not well understood but is unlikely to be simple and straightforward.
Laxness of facial muscles and loss of muscle mass are just two factors that lead to facial sagging. Skin elasticity and fat mass also play a role. Japanese researchers from the Shiseido Life Science Research Center who studied sagging of the cheeks found that the relationships between these factors vary in the different parts of the cheek. Their conclusion: “Sagging may be associated with the reduction of skin elasticity and mimetic muscle function and increase of fat mass, but the relationships are different in different areas of the cheek.” [1]
And that is just the cheeks! There are about 43 muscles in the human face, including many of the muscles we use to express emotion in the mouth, eyes, nose and forehead. Many of the facial muscles are controlled by the facial nerve, which branches out into various parts of the face near your ear. Because nerves have a lot to do with muscle functioning, weaknesses and deterioration of our nerves also factor into how muscles work.
In the upper third of the face, muscle paralysis and weakness leads to droopiness around the brow. The same thing occurs in the upper eyelids. Skin on the forehead develops horizontal lines, and glabellar lines form between the eyebrows. Although it’s easy and tempting to explain these changes by referring to just skin changes—as it has been for so many years—research shows that skin laxity as well as changes in muscle mass and strength, and changes that occur in the facial bone structure should be factored in. Many of these changes are not yet fully understood.
How ageing changes the skeletal structure of the face
The human face is formed by many bones that are fused together. These bones all grow and develop at different rates. This ability of selective growth in facial bones is what allows the tiny skull of an infant to develop and assume the distinctly different shape and much larger size of an adult skull.
While most of us find it difficult to distinguish little boys from girls during infancy (if not for their gender obvious clothing), it is easy, most of the time, to tell adult males and females apart. During the maturing process, beginning with adolescence, many males develop a brow ridge above their eyes. Their jaw bones grow larger than females’. The rims of their eyeholes also assume a different shape with age. These facial bone changes occur at different rates in men and women.
Changes to the facial bone structure do not end once the facial skeleton has reached its adult dimensions. Our facial bones continue to evolve over time, with some expanding, and others slowly breaking down or melting away in a process called retrusion. Facial height continues to grow until factors like tooth loss have the opposite effect. The skeletal structure of the face—front to back, as well as the facial width—also continues expanding throughout life. Bone retrusion takes place in the mid face area, including the cheek bones, even in people who retain all their teeth, although not at a uniform rate. Our understanding of what precise changes occur in the facial bones is expanding every year. This broadens the scope for aesthetic rejuvenation of the face.
In seeking these services, we should strive to find a service provider who understands all of the potential changes that are likely to occur in our faces as we age. Once there is a wider understanding we’ll start to take a more traditional approach to facial revitalization. A planned attempt will help us look our best no matter how old we are.