Age-related Facial Changes Research Articles

Poly-L-lactic acid in the correction of age-related changes in facial skin

Age-related changes in the skin of the face and neck are the result of a number of interrelated biochemical processes occurring in various tissues (dermis and epidermis, subcutaneous fat, musculoskeletal apparatus and bone tissue). Currently, there are a number of minimally invasive techniques to correct age-related changes in the skin of the face, but the discussion regarding the clinical efficacy and duration of retention of the effect in correcting age-related facial changes continues. Poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) is popular with specialists and is used as an effective method of correcting involutive changes in the skin of the face, however, despite the extensive experience of its use, there is not enough research in foreign and domestic literature to study the duration of retention of the effect of drugs based on poly-L-lactic acid. The article presents an analysis of the data of modern literature devoted to the study of the effectiveness of the use of poly-L-lactic acid as a method of correcting age-related changes in the skin of the face.

Balancing beauty and science: a review of facial implant materials in craniofacial surgery.

Facial reconstruction and augmentation, integral in facial plastic surgery, address defects related to trauma, tumors infections, and congenital skeletal deficiencies. Aesthetic considerations, including age-related facial changes, involve volume loss and diminished projection, often associated with predictable changes in the facial skeleton. Autologous, allogeneic, and alloplastic implants are used to address these concerns. Autologous materials such as bone, cartilage, and fat, while longstanding options, have limitations, including unpredictability and resorption rates. Alloplastic materials, including metals, polymers, and ceramics, offer alternatives. Metals like titanium are biocompatible and used primarily in fracture fixation. Polymers, such as silicone and polyethylene, are widely used, with silicone presenting migration, bony resorption, and visibility issues. Polyethylene, particularly porous polyethylene (MedPor), was reported to have one of the lowest infection rates while it becomes incorporated into the host. Polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK) exhibits mechanical strength and compatibility with imaging modalities, with custom PEEK implants providing stable results. Acrylic materials, like poly-methylmethacrylate (PMMA), offer strength and is thus mostly used in the case of cranioplasty. Bioceramics, notably hydroxyapatite (HaP), offer osteoconductive and inductive properties, and HaP granules demonstrate stable volume retention in facial aesthetic augmentation. Combining HaP with other materials, such as PLA, may enhance mechanical stability. 3D bioprinting with HaP-based bioinks presents a promising avenue for customizable and biocompatible implants. In conclusion, various materials have been used for craniofacial augmentation, but none have definitively demonstrated superiority. Larger randomized controlled trials are essential to evaluate short- and long-term complications comprehensively, potentially revolutionizing facial balancing surgery.

Validating a Series of Photonumeric Rating Scales for Use in Facial Aesthetics Using Statistical Analysis of Intra- and Inter-rater Reliability.

BackgroundGrowing demand for minimally invasive aesthetic procedures to correct age-related facial changes and optimize facial proportions has been met with innovation but has created an unmet need for objective assessment tools to evaluate results empirically.ObjectivesThe purpose of this study is to establish the intra- and inter-rater reliability of ordinal, photonumeric, 4-, or 5-point rating scales for clinical use to assess facial aesthetics.MethodsBoard-certified plastic surgeons and dermatologists (3 raters) performed live validation of jawline contour, temple volume, chin retrusion, nasolabial folds, vertical perioral lip lines, midface volume loss, lip fullness, and crow’s feet dynamic- and at rest-rating scales over 2 rounds, 2 weeks apart. Subjects selected for live validation represented the range of scores and included 54 to 83 subjects for each scale. Test-retest reliability was quantitated through intra- and inter-rater reliability, determined from the mean weighted kappa and round 2 intraclass correlation coefficients, respectively. The clinical significance of a 1-grade difference was assessed through rater comparison of 31 pairs of side-by-side photographs of subjects with the same grade or a different grade on the developed scales.ResultsThe study demonstrated substantial to near-perfect intra- and inter-rater reliability of all scales when utilized by trained raters to assess a diverse group of live subjects. Furthermore, the clinical significance of a 1-point difference on all the developed scales was established.ConclusionsThe high test-retest reliability and intuitive layout of these scales provide an objective approach with standardized ratings for clinical assessment of various facial features.

Extending the “Reach” of the Short-Scar Facelift with Energy Devices—An Early Report

Facial rejuvenation has become more popular. A wider breadth of the patient population is seeking procedures to preserve their youthful facial attributes and to remedy age-related deleterious changes. Along with this increasing interest in facial rejuvenation is also the expressed desire for any interventions to be relatively low risk, with limited recovery, and with achievable positive results. Many new technologies have become available in an attempt to improve age-related facial changes. The radiofrequency (RF)-based technologies are largely directed toward skin tightening and toward reducing and remodeling subcutaneous fat. It can be contemplated that the combination of RF-based technology with limited surgical procedures may extend the patient selection for less invasive procedures while improving potential results. This is a report of the combination of radiofrequency technologies-percutaneous and transcutaneous-with short scar face techniques in facial rejuvenation.

Combined approach to the correction of age-related facial changes: laser technologies, botulinum toxin and hyaluronic acid fillers

Combined approach to the correction of age-related facial changes: laser technologies, botulinum toxin and hyaluronic acid fillers

Tackling Age-Invariant Face Recognition With Non-Linear PLDA and Pairwise SVM

Face recognition approaches, especially those based on deep learning models, are becoming increasingly attractive for missing person identification, due to their effectiveness and the relative simplicity of obtaining information available for comparison. However, these methods still suffer from large accuracy drops when they have to tackle cross-age recognition, which is the most common condition to face in this specific task. To address these challenges, in this paper we investigate the contribution of different generative and discriminative models that extend the Probabilistic Linear Discriminant Analysis (PLDA) approach. These models aim at disentangling identity from other facial variations (including those due to age effects). As such, they can improve the age invariance characteristics of state-of-the-art deep facial embeddings. In this work, we experiment with a standard PLDA, a non-linear version of PLDA, the Pairwise Support Vector Machine (PSVM), and introduce a nonlinear version of PSVM (NL–PSVM) as a novelty. We thoroughly analyze the proposed models’ performance when addressing cross-age recognition in a large and challenging experimental dataset containing around 2.5 million images of 790,000 individuals. Results on this testbed confirm the challenges in age invariant face recognition, showing significant differences in the effects of aging across embedding models, genders, age ranges, and age gaps. Our experiments show as well the effectiveness of both PLDA and its proposed extensions in reducing the age sensitivity of the facial features, especially when there are significant age differences (more than ten years) between the compared images or when age-related facial changes are more pronounced, such as during the transition from childhood to adolescence or from adolescence to adulthood. Further experiments on three standard cross-age benchmarks (MORPH2, CACD-VS, and FG-NET) confirm the proposed models’ effectiveness.

Reasonable choice of a complex program for correction of age-related facial changes using injection and laser technologies

Reasonable choice of a complex program for correction of age-related facial changes using injection and laser technologies

Triple-S Lift for Facial Rejuvenation.

Since the beginning of the last century, when the aesthetic rejuvenating surgery was first described, there have been great changes in tactics and methods for solving the problems of age-related facial changes. Since the first description of the superficial muscular aponeurotic system (SMAS), there have been two main approaches to influencing this structure. These are various types of SMAS plications and different in-depth and technique sub-SMAS liftings. Each of these approaches has its advantages and disadvantages. We have developed and applied a face-lift technique that combines the advantages of both approaches. We call it the triple-S lift, which is based on three basic principles: 1. A short scar technique; 2. The safety SMAS (limited sub-SMAS dissection to anterior border of the masseter muscle); 3. The support system (a complex of ligatures in the sub-SMAS layer, which allows lifting and plication of the medial part of the SMAS simultaneously) According to this method, there were 93 operations performed on 8 men and 85 women aged 38 to 72years. The first clinical applications produced good results. The patients noted a high degree of satisfaction, and the level of complications was quite low. Since the technique has been performed for a short period of time, we demonstrate results of the 2-year period. The described technique requires further study, but the first results suggest that this type of a surgical intervention is safe, easy to execute, and may be an option to choose for surgical correction of facial aging changes. This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .

The Science and Theory behind Facial Aging.

Summary:The etiology of age-related facial changes has many layers. Multiple theories have been presented over the past 50–100 years with an evolution of understanding regarding facial changes related to skin, soft tissue, muscle, and bone. This special topic will provide an overview of the current literature and evidence and theories of facial changes of the skeleton, soft tissues, and skin over time.

Validated Composite Assessment Scales for the Global Face

Twenty grading scales have been developed to assess age-related facial changes. Until now, the validity with regard to the patient's actual age and the clinical importance of combined measurement tools to describe facial aging was unclear. To investigate the reliability and validity of a total face score and three global face assessment scales for estimated age, estimated aesthetic treatment effort, and signs of aging in the facial units. Descriptive, reliability, correlation, and principal component analyses based on the assessment of 50 subjects by 12 raters using the 20 grading scales and the global face assessment scales. Inter- and intrarater reliability was high for the total face score and for the scales on estimated age and aesthetic treatment effort. Actual age was highly correlated with these three measures. Facial aging was indicated particularly by scales of the lower face. The aesthetic grading scales and global scales on estimated age and aesthetic treatment effort are reliable and valid instruments. The results suggest that a more-comprehensive evaluation of the human face and its age-related changes can help to identify important areas of facial aging and to define optimal aesthetic treatment strategies.

Clinical and molecular characterization of Italian patients affected by Cohen syndrome

Cohen syndrome is an autosomal recessive disorder with variability in the clinical manifestations, characterized by developmental delay, visual disability, facial dysmorphisms and intermittent neutropenia. We described a cohort of 10 patients affected by Cohen syndrome from nine Italian families ranging from 5 to 52 years at assessment. Characteristic age related facial changes were well documented. Visual anomalies, namely retinopathy and myopia, were present in 9/10 patients (retinopathy in 9/10 and myopia in 8/10). Truncal obesity has been described in all patients older than 6 years (8/8). DNA samples from all patients were analyzed for mutations in COH1 by DHPLC. We detected 15 COH1 alterations most of them were truncating mutations, only one being a missense change. Partial gene deletions have been found in two families. Most mutations were private. Two were already reported in the literature just once. A single base deletion leading to p.T3708fs3769, never reported before, was found in three apparently unrelated families deriving from a restricted area of the Veneto's lowland, between Padova town and Tagliamento river, in heterozygous state. Given the geographical conformation of this region, which is neither geographically or culturally isolated, a recent origin of the mutation could be hypothesized.