laugh lines removal

Filler For Laugh Lines, Smile Lines, and Nasolabial Folds
Will Dermal Filler Help With Laugh Lines and Smile Lines?
If you’ve ever considered trying dermal fillers for your face, then you may have wondered whether they might help with the smile lines that can start to appear with age. As a registered nurse and someone who’s tried facial fillers herself, I’m often asked about the best way to treat wrinkles and lines the occur in different areas of the face, including smile lines.

To learn about how you can deal with smile lines through the use of dermal fillers, including tips for how to achieve the best results, keep reading.

How Do Dermal Fillers Work?

Dermal fillers work by adding volume to the dermis layer of the skin, below the epidermis layer and the cuticle (top) layer. When new volume is added to replace volume that has been lost due to the effects of aging, this helps to lessen the appearance of wrinkles and sagging skin. However, aging isn’t the only reason why the skin could lose some of its volume, since this can also occur due to factors that are unrelated to aging, such as dehydration, smoking, and overexposure to UV rays from the sun.

Dermal fillers are injectable solutions made from different types of materials, such as hyaluronic acid (HA) or collagen. The most commonly-used dermal fillers contain hyaluronic acid, which is considered by many to be the most effective type of filler for adding volume to the skin and treating wrinkles. Hyaluronic acid and fillers made from it are “hydrophilic”, meaning that they attract water to the area being injected, helping to replenish moisture and to add volume that the skin has lost.

When used as a dermal filler, hyaluronic acid will also trigger the body to produce more natural hyaluronic acid on its own, which in turn increases both collagen and elastin production by the body, improving the skin’s strength and elasticity, and resulting in a more rejuvenated and youthful appearance.

Botox, which is also used to counter the effects of aging on skin, is not a dermal filler and functions quite differently. Botox is made from botulinum, a neurotoxin, and contains no hyaluronic acid. Botox and Dysport are brand names for commercial forms of the botulinum toxin. When injected into muscles, Botox causes temporary paralysis that may last up to six months, relaxing the muscle and reducing the appearance of lines and wrinkles in the skin above the muscle.

What Causes Nasolabial Folds?

Nasolabial folds, also called smile lines or laugh lines, are facial features that become more prominent with age. They appear as two folds or creases that run from each side of the nose down to the corners of the mouth, separating the cheeks from the upper lip. Repetitive facial movements over time, such as smiling, laughing or frowning, along with a reduction in collagen and elastin in the skin due to aging, causes lines or wrinkles to gradually appear in the skin, and these can become more deeply-set as we continue to age.

Other areas of the face where repetitive facial movements or simply volume loss in the skin can lead over time to the appearance of lines or wrinkles include:

the forehead (forehead lines, frown lines)
between the eyebrows (frown lines, creases)
between the eyes and temples (hollow temples, crow’s feet)
beneath the eyes (eye bags, dark circles, wrinkling, tear trough hollowness)
the cheeks (loss of volume, hollowness, sagging skin)
the chin (marionette lines, chin wrinkles)
The appearance of nasolabial folds and other types of facial lines and wrinkles are common and a natural part of aging. However, if they become unsightly and solutions are being contemplated, then dermal fillers are a way to replenish lost volume and to return the skin to a more rejuvenated and youthful appearance.