南国の美容クリニック。宮城美容外科クリニックです。

More than a decade ago, people are more focused on fixing appearances of specific parts such as eyes, nose, etc. But the latest trend is more directed toward correction of the whole face contour balance by doing treatments on face structures.
Most of the complaints are not that specific, and some just express their requests in a vague manner, saying that they need balance of their looks, instead of saying they want their eyes bigger or nose smaller. Worse case is that one does not even know what to do so he or she just ask the doctor what is good for him/her.








There is a lot of reasons for these recent styles, and maybe one of them is the progress in IT (information technology). A peep of the appearance through smartphone cameras or showing the face on the Skype monitors make everyone more self-conscious.
Even if your face is just in the small box at the corner of the screen during telecommunication, you might sometimes become paranoid about how it appears at the other edge of the wire.

What you see on the screen looks quite different from what you see daily in the mirror, and you start thinking of fixing it.

Another reason why face contour care is on the rise is that non-surgical 'petit' aesthetic cares are also on the rise, meaning one has more options to choose from.

Let us just check on what options are there in recent cosmetic treatments:


１．Botox Treatment　　　　　Correction of facial contour depends a lot on chin correction treatments.
It is because with one treatment of the chin, significant effect is noticeable from every view; frontal, profile, or slant.
Allergan's Botox
Botox injection can simply remove frontal dimpling of the chin caused by expression muscles and consequently increase projection that makes the chin more cosmetically appealing from the side view.
Conjunction with hyaluronic acid injection(mentioned later) can show more noticeable effect.



chin dimpling Botox injection bef/aft
Together with chin Botox, injection into the platysmal band（drape muscle along neck that creates turkey-neck-look-alike appearance) shows sharper chin profile and , of course, a a more youthful line from the side view.








platysma Botox injection bef/aft

Another dramatic effect that Botox injection can do with face contour is the reduction of the lower outer cheek volume along the jawline that is caused by masseter muscle that sticks to lower jaw bone.
By relaxing the masseter you can achieve the so-called 'small-face effect' which is a must for Asians' view of an adorable facial contour.
If you desire for the opposite effect, try hyaluronic acid filling which is explained later in this report.






masseter muscle Botox bef/aft




２．BNLS lipolysis　　　　The latest mesotherapy (liporeduction) that is called BNLS(Brand New LipoSculpture) exerts its effect in frontal view in correction of the face contour.

BNLS is the newest mesotherapy that contains 8 types of lipolysis and lymph- circulation-enhancing substances. It is different from the previous mesotherapy that required 10 to 20 weekly treatments. Even with 1 treatment you can soon observe changes with BNLS few days later. 3 or more treatments are recommended







Treatment is done simply by injecting the substances into the fat layer of the parts shown below in a picture, using a blunt canulla to avoid swelling or bruises.











BNLS fixes facial outline or contour mainly at the cheek part.
Especially at the lower cheek、while the forementioned masseter Botox only works at the far outer side, BNLS reduces the inner side of the area.





lower cheek BNLS bef/aft



３．Hyaluronic Acid(HA) Injection　　　　Fillers such as hyaluronic acid are quite useful in repairing chin part which is an important factor in correcting facial contour.








chin HA injection bef/aft

And again, it is recommendable sometimes to combine this treatment with Botox injection to loosen tense muscle that is pulling the structure.

Besides the chin, HA is also effective in adding volumes to forehead, temple, and cheek.
In these parts, HA not only increases volume but also improves skin texture because it is HA's nature to hold water inside skin tissue.




temple HA bef/aft

Another filler called Radiesse (bone-content filler) is avoided by most of the cosmetic surgeons because of its damaging effect to the surrounding skin tissues just immediately after the procedure.


4.　Y-ko Thread Nose Lift　　　　　　　　　Nose Lift also can help correct facial contour. Though its effect is mainly observed from side or profile view, nose tip lift , together with the chin lift, creates the so-callled esthetic line(E line) that connects those tips and the lips.










The recent nonsurgical option for nose lift is Y-ko nose lift thread.










　　　Y-ko for nose ridge　　　　　　　　for nose tip
The downtime(recovery time) for this procedure is the same with filler injections. Faster and swells less, but more effective and long lasting than fillers such as HA(hyaluronic acid).





Since it is made of safe dissolvable thread, it is expected to melt away within 6 months. But during this process, collagen fibers interact with the thread to take place of its function as the lifter of the nose tip.




Humps on nose bridge sometimes make nasal tip look lowered, and in this case Y-ko threads can help lift the lowered tip of the nose.









In actual insertion of the thread, a set of a blunt cannula and a thread is introduced directly along the columella(nose part that connects nose tip and nose base) to push or lift the tip with the thread and its barbs(spikes), leaving a needle point on the tip. Performed under local anesthesia.











5．N-COG Thread Face Lift　　　　　This treatment is requisite for face contour care. Actually, mainly performed for a youthful frontal and profile faceline.
An almost no-downtime but effective procedure will be lifting of jows by the latest thread lift called N-COG Spiral Thread.







The barbs(spikes) along the thread are stronger than ever and are aligned spirally to gain firmer lifting of the saggy jowls, within few minutes and only with tiny swelling and needle points as in filler injections.






The threads used are dissolvable within half a year but the newly generated collagens replace them to make skin firmer for a year or two.





Actual treatment uses cannulas(blunt needles)to introduce threads underneath the skin inorder to prevent bad bruises and swelling. One side might need at least 2 threads or more and needle points are hidden along sideburns or hairline. Like filler treatment, local anesthetics are necessary.


These have been the nonsurgical options we have lately for treatment of facial outline, and since they are just simple and fast procedures, limit of their effects are predictable. If dramatic effect is your main interest, better think of surgical treatments that might have downtime but show satisfactory outcomes.

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