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Facial bone loss contributes to looking older
Last Updated: 2005-09-27 8:44:33 -0400 (Reuters Health)
By Megan Rauscher
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - You can blame the bones in the face, not
just gravity, for those wrinkles, jowls, and the general drooping
appearance that comes with age. A new study shows that the shrinking of
facial bones plays a surprisingly important role in the aging of the face.
Dr. David Kahn, a Palo Alto, California-based plastic surgeon and author
of the study told Reuters Health: "What I think happens is that the
bones in the face lose volume and recede a little bit as we age."
He presented the results of the study Sunday at the annual meeting of
the American Society of Plastic Surgeons in Chicago.
"When we think of aging of the face," Kahn continued, "we typically just
think that the soft tissue -- the skin and the fat -- deteriorates and
becomes looser or bigger and we typically just lift everything back up
and take out some skin to tighten it back up."
"We don't usually think of the shrinking of the bones or manage this in
terms of aging. I think what we need to look at a way to combine a
traditional facelift with something that adds volume to the face, like
with fat injections," Kahn said.
Kahn found age-related changes in the bony elements of the face by
studying 3D CAT scans of 30 men and 30 women who fell equally into three
age groups: 25 to 44 years old; 45 to 64 years old; and older than 65
years. All of the participants were white and none of them had problems,
such as broken bones, that could affect the results.
In comparing the CAT scans from the younger and older subjects, Kahn
noticed statistically significant changes in the angles of the bones of
the facial skeleton, signaling a loss of volume. These changes were
present in the mid-face area or the lower part of the orbits around the
nose.
The results also show that women lose facial bone volume at a younger
age than men, causing them to see the signs of aging sooner than men.
These findings dispel the widely held belief that only gravity creates
wrinkles and other hallmarks of aged facial skin, Kahn concluded.
Clearly loss of volume in the face and changes in facial bone structure
also play a role in looking older.
In the future, facial rejuvenation techniques are likely to combine the
use of fillers to add back volume caused by shrinking bone with
traditional lifting of the skin.
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