What helps with sagging cheeks?

It starts subt­ly. The slight sag­ging of the cheek area, bare­ly visi­ble at first. The face looks a litt­le more tired. The skin loses ten­si­on. The pro­fi­le is less clear, the con­tour appears sof­ter – and with it the expres­si­on. Some­thing has chan­ged wit­hout you being able to say exact­ly what. Does this sce­ne look fami­li­ar to you?

Quite a few of our pati­ents are fami­li­ar with this situa­ti­on. When the cheeks start to sag, the face looks older. This is a ques­ti­on we often hear in our prac­ti­ce: „What can I do to make my con­tour firm­er again?“ And: „How can I get rid of my sag­ging cheeks, natu­ral­ly and wit­hout a facelift?“

Aes­the­tic medi­ci­ne has deve­lo­ped rapidly in recent years. Today, we have effec­ti­ve and gent­le approa­ches at our dis­po­sal – from radio­fre­quen­cy need­ling and hybrid injec­tions with cal­ci­um hydro­xya­pa­ti­te to thread lif­ting and face sculp­ting. face sculp­ting for men and women. In this artic­le, we give you an insight into the latest methods. The rea­ding time? Just 5 minutes.

What is behind sagging cheeks

What we col­lo­qui­al­ly call „sag­ging cheeks“ is the result of seve­ral changes:

1. The volu­me of the midd­le cheek shifts downwards.
2. The skin is less elastic.
3. The retai­ning liga­ments of the face loo­sen and the fat­ty tis­sue below the chin line beco­mes more prominent.

The­se effects are inten­si­fied by the natu­ral break­down of col­la­gen from around the age of 30. This means that sag­ging cheeks are a visi­ble con­se­quence of skin age­ing. And they are uni­que to each individual.

A mira­cle cream would of cour­se be per­fect, but this does not yet exist. What does exist are well thought-out tre­at­ment con­cepts. Modern skin tigh­tening is one of the spe­cial­ties of the Swiss Der­ma Cli­nic in Zurich.

What really helps? And what doesn’t?

Much used and almost always over­ra­ted: clas­sic creams, skin oils against cel­lu­li­te, facial mas­sa­ges and unt­ar­ge­ted skin tigh­tening with unsui­ta­ble devices. Pure cos­me­tics nou­rish, but they do not lift the skin. So it is of no use for sag­ging cheeks. Why? What real­ly cau­ses sag­ging lies deeper: in the so-cal­led SMAS lay­er. This is whe­re the fasciae are loca­ted, which are respon­si­ble for the sag­ging of the skin. Effec­ti­ve tigh­tening of sag­ging cheeks is based on three mecha­nisms of action:

Tightening, volume modeling, tissue strengthening.

Our methods at a glance:

1. Lif­ting wit­hout a scalpel
   Lif­ting wit­hout a scal­pel are tre­at­ments that res­to­re skin ten­si­on and lift the tis­sue, ide­al­ly wit­hout any down­ti­me. Pos­si­ble procedures:

• Sof­wa­ve®high­ly focu­sed ultra­sound, which can influence the SMAS layer.
• Inno­va­ti­ve thread lif­tingwhich forms sup­port­ing struc­tures in the tis­sue and is par­ti­cu­lar­ly sui­ta­ble for mild sag­ging cheeks.
• Geni­us® a com­bi­na­ti­on of radio­fre­quen­cy and need­ling that streng­thens the deep struc­tu­re and rege­ne­ra­tes the skin from the insi­de out.

2. Bio­lo­gi­cal boos­ters: for struc­tu­re, ela­s­ti­ci­ty and glow
   In order to not only con­ce­al skin age­ing, but to actively influence it, we need to pro­vi­de bio­lo­gi­cal stimuli.

• Bio­boost with laserwhich sti­mu­la­tes skin rege­ne­ra­ti­on. Sui­ta­ble in com­bi­na­ti­on with growth-sti­mu­la­ting acti­ve ingredients.
• Exo­so­meshigh­ly acti­ve cell mes­sen­gers that reor­ga­ni­ze the tis­sue and res­to­re its natu­ral ela­s­ti­ci­ty.
• Prof­hi­lo®Bio-Remo­de­ling, with struc­tu­re-impro­ving hyalu­ro­nic acid.

3. Mode­ling ins­tead of filling
   A com­mon mista­ke with sag­ging cheeks is to cor­rect the face upwards with volu­me. Too much fil­ler makes the pro­por­ti­ons look unna­tu­ral. Face sculp­ting and skin tigh­tening with skin tigh­tening with HArm­ony­Ca®a hybrid of fil­ler and bio­sti­mu­la­tor, are more effec­ti­ve. With both pro­ce­du­res, we can slight­ly sculpt the cheek area and also sti­mu­la­te col­la­gen production.

Which method is right for you depends on many indi­vi­du­al para­me­ters. We will be hap­py to dis­cuss the­se during your visit to us – at the Swiss Der­ma Cli­nic in Zurich.

Why less is often more

The tre­at­ment of sag­ging cheeks is not an „all or not­hing“ pro­ce­du­re. It is not about chan­ging your face, but about pre­ser­ving your natu­ral expres­si­on. It’s about fin­ding the right balan­ce bet­ween fir­ming and volu­me, the balan­ce bet­ween visi­ble effect and subt­le natu­ral­ness.

Some­ti­mes a gent­le lift with Sof­wa­ve® is enough. In other cases, the com­bi­na­ti­on of thread lif­ting and Bio­boost brings the best results. And some­ti­mes struc­tu­ral rege­ne­ra­ti­on is nee­ded befo­re sculp­ting can take place.

Sagging cheeks: What you can do yourself

1. Acti­va­te the right facial mus­cles: The­re are num­e­rous adver­ti­sed exer­ci­s­es on the inter­net for the chin, cheek and neck mus­cles. The­se may slight­ly sup­port the facial con­tour, but are no sub­sti­tu­te for tigh­tening the tissue.
2. Avo­id nico­ti­ne, fats, sun and alco­hol: A balan­ced diet, good UV pro­tec­tion and giving up smo­king can slow down the age­ing process.
3. Mas­sa­ge rol­lers as a sup­ple­ment to skin care: The­se can pro­mo­te blood cir­cu­la­ti­on in the short term and also sti­mu­la­te lymph flow in the super­fi­ci­al area (e.g. in the case of malar bags). Howe­ver, they have no effect on skin age­ing and deeper tis­sue layers.

Questions and answers

Are sag­ging cheeks „just“ skin ageing?

Sag­ging cheeks result from a com­plex inter­play of tis­sue age­ing, fat redis­tri­bu­ti­on, loss of mus­cle tone and sag­ging sup­port struc­tures. Rapid weight loss or a gene­tic pre­dis­po­si­ti­on also play a role. In some peo­p­le, sag­ging cheeks appear at a young age.

Which is bet­ter: volu­me or firming?

Neither, we achie­ve the best results with the right com­bi­na­ti­on. In the ear­ly stages, a struc­tu­re-buil­ding pro­ce­du­re such as Prof­hi­lo® or Geni­us® is often suf­fi­ci­ent. In more pro­no­un­ced cases, addi­tio­nal lif­ting (e.g. Sof­wa­ve®, thread lif­ting) or light sculp­ting (HArm­ony­Ca®) is required.

How long do the results last?

Depen­ding on the method, the results last bet­ween six months (with Prof­hi­lo) and up to two years (with thread lif­ting, HArm­ony­Ca®). Bio­lo­gi­cal pro­ce­du­res such as exo­so­mes or Bio­boost impro­ve skin qua­li­ty sus­tain­ab­ly and the­r­e­fo­re often per­ma­nent­ly. Refres­hes after a few months are recom­men­ded for most treatments.