Fitness and Fillers

If you are someone, male or female, who is definitely into fitness, then this is something you want to pay attention to. While the fitness lifestyle is extremely beneficial to your health, it is not always kind to facial volume. Those who stay very lean often find their face looks smaller or gaunt, especially competitors, bodybuilders, and parents on strict diets.

As people age in a lifestyle of fitness, the volume in their face starts to fade. Even as early as mid-30s, one can look back to college graduation pictures and see that their face is noticeably smaller even if they were in shape at that time.

Why has this happened? Well, there are 2 reasons. First of all, as we age the bones in our face start to shrink. Not just in our face, but all over our bony skeleton begins to shrink. Weight lifting does great things with our bones below the neck, but we don't lift weights with our face, so the bones in our face do not receive a force called piezoelectricity, which is the stress that acts on bones causing them to maintain growth to adulthood. Therefore, the bones in your face will gradually deteriorate over time. There is really not a lot we can do about bones, but there is a lot we can do about the loss of fat volume in our faces. For weekend athletes who maintain a fitness lifestyle and keep their body fat at a low percentage rate, the fat compartments in the face shrink and allow the overlying skin to appear as if it is in excess. The reality is that the face just doesn't have the volume it used to have.

Significant improvements can be achieved through re-volumizing using modern fillers. The technique should spread the material diffusely rather than targeting only nasolabial folds or lips.

Less experienced injectors will continue to place injectable material in these places, and it will give rise to an unusual appearance much like a chimpanzee: however, for those surgeons that understand the anatomy of the face, it is a testimony as to why such injections should only be done by surgeons. Surgeons will know where your fat previously existed, and the more experienced injector will actually ask for old photos so they can see what your particular facial structure was 10 or 15 years earlier.

The most commonly used volumizer is Juvederm. Many others are effective, ranging from Restylane, Radiesse, Sculptra, and now the more recent material, Voluma, which is a variant of Juvederm. While many surgeons are also proposing fat injections, for many athletic individuals this is not practical since they already have very low body fat, the loss of fat is actually the problem. Other problems with fat transfers can be noted, such as lumpiness, irregularity and asymmetrical absorption of the fat from one area of the face to the other.

Dr. Core’s re-volumizing program has been in place since 1998, giving him extensive experience with athletic faces. “I currently have a former Olympic gold medalist who appears 20 years younger thanks to continued training and re-volumized features,” he explains. Gradual Juvederm sessions restored health without dramatic changes.

While you may not be a former Olympic gold medalist, you may be a serious fitness enthusiast noticing facial changes. If you would like to consult Dr. Core on how to re-volumize your face so it matches that body you built, give our plastic surgery office a call at (205) 397-2100 .