21 Sep 2023 | by Leonard Miller, MD, FACS, FRCS
One of the best ways to rejuvenate the skin and tissues of the face is also one of the simplest: skin care. Your skin is your body’s largest organ. Taking proper care of it is not just good for your overall health, but will also make you look and feel better. If you examine the skin of any child, it is flawless. The pores are invisible. The texture is as smooth as glass. And the color is uniform and even. This is how we all start off looking. Then, life happens. While certain choices such as whether or not you smoked or spent time baking in the sun will accelerate your skin’s aging process, none of us can escape the ravages of Father Time. On the skin, these manifest as:
- Fine lines
- Wrinkles
- Enlarged pores
- Brown, sun spots
- Redness
- Broken blood vessels
Advanced Skin Care Products
While a great skin care regime may not heal a broken blood vessel, it can help to eliminate fine lines and wrinkles, reduce the size of your pores and even out your skin tone and texture. This will make you look more youthful. It’s also the best preparation for any surgical or non-surgical procedure. Think of your skin as the canvas under a painting. The smoother and more taut the raw material, the better the outcome. At Boston Center for Plastic Surgery, we believe in offering our patients only the very best. All of our skin care products are free of:
- Harsh chemicals
- Perfumes
- Additives
Why? Because these things can irritate and inflame your skin. And any good skin care regime should, instead, calm, nourish and hydrate your skin. Our goal with skin care is to provide you with the exact right product for your individual needs. This may mean choosing all of your skin care products from a single line or mixing and matching.
Environ® Skincare System
We are proud to have been the very first practice in the United States to carry the innovative Environ® Skincare System. Not only does this line feature a product for all of your skincare needs from smoothing and tightening, to increasing hydration, to tackling wrinkles and improving your skin tone, but it does so with a unique step-up system. So many patients come into the office complaining that they tried to use a vitamin A product like a retinol only to have it turn their skin red and scaly. That is because they went too much, too soon. Vitamin A is a skin superstar. But your skin has to become accustomed to the extra vitamins. With Environ, you start off with a product with a low level of vitamins and slowly build up. This way, you get all of the benefits without any of the redness. In addition to vitamin A, the Environ line uses other natural components such as vitamins B, C and E, bio-peptides, growth factors, anti-oxidants and alpha hydroxyl acid to gently restore a healthy, youthful glow to the skin.
ZO® Skin Health & Skin Better Science
In addition to Environ®, the Boston Center for Facial Aging also carries Dr. Zein Obagi’s ZO® Skin Health. Only available in physician’s offices, this professional strength regime, based on the latest advances in skin therapy, is one of the first to bring truly therapeutic treatments into a patient’s own bathroom. The same can be said for Skin Better Science. Created by the industry veteran instrumental in launching both Restylane and Dysport, Skin Better Science uses the latest scientific innovation to improve fine lines, wrinkles and loose skin. And the results are pretty dramatic. Featuring two anti-aging collections, the Smoothing Experience and the Regenerating Experience, this line can be customized to fit any patient.
Sunscreen, Sunscreen, Sunscreen
But the greatest anti-aging products in the world will not be as effective if you keep exposing your skin to UVA/UVB damage. The sun is amazing. It warms the planet, allows plants to grow, and gives our bodies much-needed vitamin D. It is also, unfortunately, a serious skin ager. Just take a look at the skin tone and texture on your left driving arm compared to your right arm. My guess is that it will look significantly worse. The sun not only causes brown spots and broken blood vessels, but it also helps speed up the break down of collagen. The result is skin with more fine line, wrinkles and a crepey “worn” texture. Wearing a high-quality sunscreen of at least SPF 30 every day, rain or shine, is possibly the single greatest gift that you can give your skin. We carry great sunscreens by Elta MD, SkinCeuticals and ZO® Skin Health. Finding the right one for you is going to depend on your wants, lifestyle, and personal preference. And really, that is the key with skin care: finding the highest quality product for your skin’s individual needs. So, yes, these skin care products may cost more than what you would find at your local drug store, but the results are well worth the price.
To find out more about skin care at the Boston Center for Plastic Surgery, contact us today or call (617) 735- 8735 to schedule a consultation.
