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Find a Wrinkle
Treatment Specialist
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 | | The Patient’s Guide is the most respected online publication providing information about wrinkling, photo-damaged skin, injectables, dermal fillers, laser treatment, and general skin care in , . The information published on Wrinkles.org is written and provided by some of America’s foremost dermatologists and laser surgery experts. Our mission is to help you find a qualified provider near . | | >>More About the Patient's Guide | |
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Elastin Resources
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Elastin Makes Skin "Stretchy"Elastin fibers are structural proteins found throughout our bodies that allow organs to stretch and recoil, thereby maintaining their shape. As the elastin in our skin is exposed to the sun it becomes progressively damaged, and over time the healthy elastic tissue is replaced with damaged, degraded elastin. Healthy, undamaged skin (the dry weight of the skin, that is) is usually 80 percent collagen and 4 percent elastin fibers. But in sun-damaged skin, those percentages become askew, and up to 80 percent of the skin may consist of abnormal elastin fibers rather than collagen. The damaged fibers clump and behave more like an inflexible rubber tire than like a strong but elastic rubber band. Whereas undamaged skin has a great deal of elasticity, sun-damaged skin is much more prone to wrinkles and is very inelastic. |
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Skin Doesn't Wrinkle from UseConsider the animated faces of children.They move their faces all day long and yet have no wrinkles. Wrinkling is not caused by facial muscles "creasing" our skin. Instead, wrinkling (and most of the other skin problems we mistakenly associate with aging) is caused primarily by the sun's damaging rays. If our skin wasn't sun-damaged it would bounce back into place just like a child's does. But when we subject the elastin fibers in our skin to years of the sun's damaging rays, the fibers eventually malfunction and can no longer bounce back into place. Those wrinkles you see on your forehead and elsewhere are the result of your facial muscles interacting with sun-damaged skin. Healthy skin "snaps back" into place. Damaged skin does not.
Wrinkle and anti-aging treatments include the following: Laser Skin Resurfacing, Fractional Laser Resurfacing, IPL, Radiofrequency Rejuvenation, Plasma Skin Regeneration and Injectables/ Dermal Fillers.
Last Modified: October 6, 2009 |
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Find an Energy Treatment Specialist
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St. Louis dermatologist Dr. George Hruza discusses using fillers for lip enhancement in this clip.
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Ask the Doctor
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