Facts About Wrinkles You May Not Know

Your skin is a complicated organ (and the largest one you have as it covers your entire body) composed of water, lipids, proteins, minerals, and numerous other chemicals. Your skin weighs about six pounds, regenerates every 27 days, and protects your body with three layers that perform different functions like regulating temperature, creating sweat, guarding against disease and external threats, and allowing you to feel what you touch.

Over your lifetime, your body will go through many different changes, and this is no different for your skin. And one thing everyone will deal with eventually is wrinkles. There’s a lot of information about wrinkles, but there are also many things people don’t know about why you get them or what kind you’re likely to get. Let’s learn more about these creases and folds by exploring the changes in your skin over time, what causes wrinkles, and the types of wrinkles you can get.

If you live in the Lake Oswego, Oregon, area and are unhappy with the appearance of wrinkles, the Laser & Aesthetic team at Lake Grove ENT is here to help.

Changes in skin over time

As mentioned earlier, many different chemicals make up skin, including proteins. Collagen and elastin are important proteins for maintaining firmness and elasticity in your skin; your body produces those in abundance when you’re younger. As early as your 30s and 40s, you can start seeing lines and creases in your face, and as you age, those become deeper wrinkles as your body stops producing the proteins that keep skin firm and pliable. 

In addition to wrinkles, your skin goes through many other changes as you age, including becoming dryer, rougher, slacker, more transparent, and more prone to bruising. There is also loss of fat, bone, cartilage, and other tissue that can affect the appearance of skin as you age.

Causes of wrinkles

The loss of the proteins mentioned above is a natural cause of wrinkles as we age, but several other factors can contribute to these skin changes, including: 

• Sun damage: The UV rays of the sun can provide us with warmth, light, and vitamin D, but overexposure can damage skin and lead to wrinkles, discoloration, and cancer

• Repeated facial movements: Repetitive motions of specific expressions, like smiling, frowning, and squinting, can create wrinkles around your eyes, nose, and lips

• Smoking: Among the many ways this habit can damage your body, smoking reduces the amount of collagen your body produces, making wrinkles more likely 

• Environmental pollutants: This is another way collagen can be broken down in your skin, with airborne threats like soot, nitrogen dioxide, and other particulate matter

Several of these factors can cause your skin to age prematurely, leading to wrinkles before they would naturally occur.

Types of wrinkles

Whatever the cause of your wrinkles, you will deal with two types over time: 

Dynamic

This is the form of wrinkles caused by overuse of certain muscles, such as the repeated facial movements listed above. These result in forehead lines, crow’s feet (around the eyes), worry lines (between the eyebrows), laugh lines, lip lines, and marionette lines (all formed around the mouth).

Static

This is more of a direct result of the loss of the proteins in your skin, leading to gravity taking over and pulling it down in the form of jowls and other forms of loose skin.

We have multiple ways to treat many types of wrinkles, using injectables, laser treatments, and other methods. We will all develop wrinkles over time, but they don’t have to define who we are. If you want to reduce the appearance of the creases and folds, make an appointment with the team at Lake Grove ENT today to get results.