A first sign of aging and how to fix it

I put up an article with Before & After pictures over on my own blog about one of the first signs of aging and how we fixed it in about 15 minutes.

You’ll definitely want to be close to a mirror when you read the article to see if you have the same problem Laura did.

I’m really excited about this new technique. The doctor who pioneered it has patients that he treated over 7 years ago who have not needed a touch-up in that whole time. The results look really natural on both men and women.

Dr. Rose Jeans, MD
Advanced Rejuvenation Medical Spa

Advice about how to look 10 years younger

People often ask me what they should do to look 10 years younger. Of course, the advice varies from person to person depending on their specific needs. In this article, I’m going to lay out some general guidelines about what to fix in your face to look younger.

If you are the kind of person who never goes to the hairdresser, doesn’t wear makeup or hasn’t changed your makeup style since you were in your 20s, and only buys the most basic and functional clothes at WalMart, then the best thing you can do to look 10 years younger is put yourself in the hands of a good stylist for your hair, have a makeup lesson and let a sympathetic saleswoman at a good clothing store help you choose some clothes. You’ve put yourself on the back burner long enough! Now is the time to do something nice for yourself for a change.

If you’re keeping up with hair, makeup and clothes then you want to take a trip to the medical spa to find out what we can do for you.

The absolute bedrock, most important basic thing to do is to use good, medical-grade skincare products. Good skincare makes your skin look smoother and better; it improves the physiology of your skin so it is more tolerant of all of the usual environmental stresses that damage your skin, like pollution, UV rays and extreme temperatures. Our Vivier skincare products are really effective and cost about the same as the better drugstore brands so if you’ve been dabbling in various product lines with mediocre results, come and get something that really works.

After skincare, you want to think about your face’s texture, color, tightness and volume.

Texture includes things like old acne scars, crepe-like skin, roughness, blocked pores and bumps. My skin used to be so rough from sun damage that I gave up wearing makeup because it just wouldn’t go on right any more.

Color refers to the brown spots of sun damage or abnormal pigment and the redness of broken capillaries, environmental damage and rosacea. An uneven skintone adds 5 - 10 years to your face.

Tightness really means looking at whether you have sagging skin or not enough tightness. As we age, the quality and quantity of collagen goes down so our skin starts to sag as well as wrinkle.

Volume changes in the face include loss of volume or hollowing out of the face, as well as the volume changing position. Many of us find that our cheeks head towards our jowls as we age.

Take a good look at your face in the mirror. How even is your skintone? Does your skin look smooth? Are you pores enlarged? Is the fullest part of cheek up at your cheekbone or is it drifting south? Do you have hollow temples? Do you have jowls? Do you have a lot of lines in your lips or around your mouth?

You probably know which problem is aging your appearance the most or you can come and talk to me and I’ll give you my objective opinion.

The good news is that all of these problems can be fixed – without surgery! Wouldn’t you like to look in the mirror and see a face that looks as young as you feel inside? You will find your mood and energy level totally improve as you start looking better and better.

In future articles, I will write about each problem and the various treatments that can be done to fix them.

Dr. Rose Jeans, MD
Advanced Rejuvenation Medical Spa

Our Elta MD sunscreens are recommended by EWG

In an earlier post, I talked about the Elta MD Sport 50 sunscreen. It provides a high level of protection but more importantly, Catherine used it and found that it didn’t run into her eyes.

Now the Environmental Working Group has released a study comparing 952 name-brand sunscreens widely available in the US. Each product was assessed for safety and effectiveness. Only 15% made it to the recommended list.

I am happy to report that all of the sunscreens available for purchase at Advanced Rejuvenation Medical Spa are on the recommended list. The only exception is our excellent Vivier line, which wasn’t tested since it is a Canadian brand and not widely available in the US.

We carry several Elta MD sunscreens so if you have dry or oily skin or if you need protection in sweaty situations, we have a sunscreen that will suit you.

In addition to the Elta products, we carry Ti-Silc Sheer SPF 45, which is also on EWG’s Recommended list. This is a lightly tinted sunscreen with a pearly finish that gives the skin a beautiful glow. A little Ti-Silc and a little mascara and lipgloss are all you need for that healthy, natural look in the summer.

The EWG report highlighted some problems with sunscreens such as rapid breakdown when exposed to sun. It defeats the purpose of a sunscreen, if the product degrades with 30 minutes of sun exposure, doesn’t it?

You can check out your own brand of sunscreen on the EWG website to see how it rates.

Big changes in Burlington

Carl and Josie Chiarelli of Chiarelli Hair Design have just retired from the hair business. Carl styled his last client on Saturday, June 28th. We are very sorry to see them go and wish them all the best in their retirement.

Over the holiday weekend, Chiarelli’s was converted to Art in Hair by new owner Amy Beaulieu. Many of your favourite stylists are staying so you’ll still see lots of familiar faces but the decor has been changed to reflect the new management.

Amy comes to Burlington from E=MC2 in Toronto where she built up a specialty in hair extensions.

From the E=MC2 website:

AMY is a mother, a wife and a gifted and accomplished hairstylist and hair colorist. Working in the field since 1993, Amy is a senior stylist with EMC² salon and has a strong and loyal clientele. Amy is also an educator and has been a talented Hair Extension Artist since 2000.

I always thought hair extensions were just about lengthening your hair but Amy does amazing things with extensions not only to lengthen but also to make thin hair appear thicker and to change the color of your hair without dye.

Amy works with Great Lengths 100% human hair extensions. She can do anything from little pieces, for instance as highlights, to a whole new head of hair.

She is going to write some articles for this blog to show exactly what she can do to solve various hair style problems.

Please drop in and see the new Art in Hair salon at 425 Locust Street.

Video from the Reveal Party

This is Catherine’s speech from the Reveal Party. I apologise in advance for the video quality but you can hear what she has to say perfectly well.

The Reveal Party was hosted by Kaareli’s Restaurant and Wine Bar. The owner, Anna, laid on a very tasty spread of appetizers, including a bruschetta that disappeared quickly, hummous, shrimps, smoked salmon on toast with capers and several other delicacies.

Some friends of ours are arranging a wine-tasting evening at Kaareli’s and found the prices very reasonable.

All of the attendees at the Reveal Party agreed that they would come back for lunch or dinner because we all enjoyed Kaareli’s so much.

Many thanks to Anna for hosting the 10 Years Younger … in Burlington! Reveal Party.

Dr. Bekesch’s report: Catherine’s dental work

This lady’s mouth was already in immaculate condition so only cosmetic treatment was considered.

The upper front teeth were already very well restored and in excellent condition so no treatment was elected there.

The left upper posterior teeth were out of alignment and were darker than the anterior. The color was masked, new colors were layered into the composite veneers which were built out to match the front teeth.

The lower front teeth were crowded and darker than the upper teeth. The original color was masked out and the new colors were layered into the veneers, which effectively straightened out her teeth.

The whole treatment was accomplished in one appointment.

Dr. Nicholas Bekesch, Family and Cosmetic Dentistry

[Ed. note: WOW!]

The changes in Catherine’s face

These images were taken on our medical camera system, the left image before we did any treatments on Catherine, and the right 2 days ago.

Do you see how the redness has really come out of her skin? The Vivier Redness Relief skincare products and the IPL treatments did that.

You can also see how her brown sun spots are fewer, smaller and lighter. The IPLs did that too. Catherine would need a few more IPLs to erase the brown spots completely.

Catherine’s skin looks smoother and more dewy. This is also called radiance. Radiance comes from the skincare products and the Pixel laser treatments.

Catherine’s face has slimmed down with her 15 pound weight loss but her cheeks haven’t flattened out. That’s because I injected some Teosyal dermal filler along her cheekbones to lift and volumize her cheeks. Putting filler in the cheeks helps to reduce the lines that bracket the mouth (nasolabial folds and marionette lines) and lifts jowls.

The frown lines on Catherine’s forehead were smoothed out with BOTOX® Cosmetic. She also got a bit of a brow lift with the botox but you can’t see it in this picture.

Catherine’s lips are plumped up just enough to smooth out the vertical lines using Teosyal KISS, a product I really like.

Another important point about Catherine’s face is that she continued her running during the makeover period and competed in a couple of races without getting tanned. Catherine was really diligent about applying her sunscreen.

Isn’t it exciting to see what a transformation can occur in just a 1-month period?

Here she is!

Have a look at Catherine’s before and after shots.

Now you can see what we were getting so excited about. These are photographer Melanie Gillis‘ pictures so, admittedly, they are much more beautiful than all of the medical or amateur shots we’ve been showing you so far. Catherine is unretouched in these images.

Catherine lost 15 pounds and 15 inches! WOW!

Oh — and by the way, Catherine is 58! Doesn’t she look wonderful?

Before and after UV images

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are Catherine’s UV photos, the before on the left and today’s photo right. Yes, I know she looks a bit moribund but that is because ultraviolet light picks up different things from regular visible light.

If you watch crime shows like CSI, you know that UV light sees deeper into the skin, revealing sun damage that may not be visible on the surface. That’s what the brown spots are on Catherine’s skin.

You can see that we’ve reduced the size and number of brown spots with one month of treatments. The primary treatment responsible for this change is the IPL or Intense Pulsed Light treatment. The fractionated laser, the Pixel, also plays a role.

The skincare products helped too. Catherine was able to tolerate the Vitamin C serum with hydroquinone called SeeQuin by Vivier.

This is what Catherine’s skin looks like below the surface. Pretty good, eh? Wait until you see what it looks like in daylight. Stay tuned for the next article.

What does Catherine look like now?

We’re getting set to unveil Catherine on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at Kaareli’s Restaurant and Wine Bar.

We had the photoshoot for the after pictures last week at Melanie Gillis’ studio. Melanie showed us the before pictures at the same time. We’d all forgotten what Catherine looked like at the beginning. What a transformation!

I know you’re dying to see the before and after pictures and we’ll start posting them here on Thursday the 12th. You’ll also be able to see Catherine’s pictures in person here at Advanced Rejuvenation.

After the reveal party, we’ll be able to go into more detail about the procedures that Catherine had done, why they were done and what her results were so check back with this site to learn more about how specific treatments make you look 10 years younger.