Most people don’t need a facelift to rejuvenate their appearance. Instead, a nonsurgical facelift can help them look years, even decades younger. It can be better than a surgical facelift in some ways. However, the procedure isn’t for everyone. How can you tell if you are a candidate for the procedure?
Here are seven clues that a nonsurgical facelift can help rejuvenate your appearance.
Discolored or Decayed Teeth
One of the most important clues that dentistry can help you look younger is the state of your teeth. After all, your smile is one of the things that people use to guess your age, so if your smile looks older, you will, too.
Probably the most common complaint people have about their smile is that it’s discolored, which is associated with being older, even if the main cause isn’t age, but colored foods like coffee, tea, and wine.
Decayed teeth can also make you look older. Cavities can discolor your teeth and make your smile look unhealthy. Even filled cavities can be a problem, if they’re filled with metal amalgam. Metal amalgam fillings are an older technology, and if you have them, people will assume you are older. Plus, they can discolor your teeth, too, or be mistaken for untreated cavities once they oxidize. Tooth-colored fillings and inlays can help you look younger.
Worn Teeth
Worn teeth are also an important clue that you might benefit from a nonsurgical facelift with dentistry. As your teeth wear down, they can lose height, causing your face to collapse, which contributes to many signs of facial aging (more on this below).
Tooth wear isn’t as obvious as discoloration or decay, but you can see it if you look. First, know that for most people the two center teeth (central incisors) on the top are longer than those on either side. If yours are about the same length, you should suspect wear. Look back at older pictures of yourself smiling and see if they are the same length or different. If your center teeth used to be longer, but now aren’t, you’ve got serious tooth wear.
You can also look at the biting surfaces of your teeth. Look for a two-color effect. That is, some of the top of the tooth might be the same color as the front of the tooth, while some of it is a darker color, and maybe a different texture. This is a sign that your teeth are worn down, with the outer layer of enamel worn away, exposing the next layer of the tooth, called the dentin.
Another hint that you’ve got worn teeth is sensitivity. The enamel protects the living part of the tooth–the pulp–from pressure and temperature changes. When it’s gone, your teeth will be more sensitive. So if your teeth are more sensitive than they used to be, you should suspect tooth wear.
TMJ Symptoms
Tooth wear is closely linked to temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ or TMD). Sometimes, TMJ is the cause of tooth wear. Other times, the clenching and grinding that leads to tooth wear can damage the jaw joints, which causes TMJ.
TMJ is commonly misdiagnosed, so it’s likely that you have it, even if you haven’t been formally diagnosed. You should suspect TMJ if you experience these symptoms:
- Jaw pain
- Headaches
- Popping and clicking of the joint
- Irregular jaw motion
- Ringing in the ears, earache, or other ear symptoms
If you have these symptoms, you should talk to a neuromuscular dentist, especially if you also have tooth wear.
Wrinkles around the Mouth
As our teeth lose volume because of wear or even loss, the structural support of our face shrinks. However, the skin doesn’t. For the same skin to fit around a smaller mouth, it has to fold and wrinkle. This creates lines that radiate out from the mouth, sometimes called smoker’s lines or lipstick lines.
It also contributes to the development of nasolabial folds (also called parentheses lines) around the mouth and a pronounced line between the mouth and chin, called the labiomental crease.
Jowls
Jowls can also be caused by the shrinking of your facial support. Jowls are caused when the cheek fat pads hang below your jaw line. This can be caused by the fat pads falling down, but it can also be caused by the jaw line moving up because of the shrinking teeth.
If you have jowls and you’ve noticed wrinkles around your mouth as well as worn teeth or TMJ symptoms, then you’re likely to benefit from a nonsurgical facelift.
A Rounder Face
When we’re young, our faces have a tendency to be vertical, taking an oval or heart shape. This is based on the structure of the skull and jaw, including the teeth.
But as the teeth get worn down, the face can lose its vertical dimension. It becomes less of an oval or heart, and more of a square or circle. Because this is related to deep structural changes, this isn’t something a facelift can correct.
Changes in Your Profile
Changes in face shape aren’t just visible from the front. You’ll notice them in your profile, too. You’ll notice the same changes you see from the front, with the profile growing shorter, but you may also notice other changes, too.
Your chin may move backward, creating a receding jawline. In addition, you may notice that there is more loose skin hanging underneath the jaw. This excess skin is sometimes described as a “turkey neck.” Plastic surgeons want to cut this skin away, but by restoring the structure of your teeth, it can be significantly reduced without surgery.
Let Us Rejuvenate Your Appearance
Have you noticed these signs of facial aging? If so, then it’s likely that you would benefit from a nonsurgical facelift.
To learn how you can look younger with a smile makeover, please call (248) 656-2020 today for an appointment with a rejuvenation dentist at Doolin Haddad Advanced Dentistry in Rochester, MI.
