Behind every fresh, youthful-looking complexion, there’s a strong foundation of collagen and elastin, the primary proteins that make your skin smooth, firm, supple, and resilient.
Unfortunately, this supportive underlying scaffold of deep dermal tissue loses its strength and structure over time because the collagen and elastin proteins that build it become less plentiful as you age.
Read on as we take a closer look at the vital role that collagen and elastin play in maintaining radiant, healthy skin, and find out how Dr. Maria-Teresa Ioannou and our expert team at Vida Dental Spa in Whitestone, New York, can help you reverse collagen and elastin depletion and revitalize your skin from the inside out.
The building blocks of smooth, healthy skin
Proteins are complex molecules that perform vital functions to support your body and keep you healthy. When maintaining optimum skin health, no two protein building blocks are more important than collagen and elastin.
Collagen strength
As many as four in five of the building blocks (80%) comprising your dermal tissues are collagen, an exceptionally durable structural protein that many skin care experts call the “cement holding everything together.” Indeed, its central function is to shape, strengthen, and stabilize your body cells and tissues, including your skin.
Elastin flexibility
Whereas collagen makes your skin firm and resilient, elastin provides a counterbalance of flexibility that keeps your skin equally soft and supple. Elastin is the protein that tightens underlying dermal structures and prevents skin from sagging; it also allows your skin to stretch and contract when you gain and lose weight.
Ongoing renewal
Together, collagen and elastin do an outstanding job of keeping your skin healthy and in a constant state of renewal: Layer by layer, your dermal tissues remodel themselves — and cell by cell, they replenish their collagen and elastin reserves — every 30 days.
The mechanisms of collagen and elastin loss
Unfortunately, your skin’s collagen and elastin stores are neither unlimited nor impervious to depletion. The building blocks of beautiful skin become less abundant with each passing year and grow weaker when subjected to certain unhealthy habits.
Gradual depletion
At age 20, your skin’s collagen and elastin reservoirs are brimming. With every passing year, however, your dermal building block reserves decline — research shows that skin naturally loses at least 1% of its collagen and elastin structures each year.
It doesn’t sound like a lot, but these tiny, incremental losses add up over time. Look at it this way: The average 40-year-old has at least 20% less collagen and elastin than they did when they were 20 years old.
Expedited depletion
As if that weren’t bad enough, age-related collagen and elastin decline hastens harmful skin habits like smoking and frequent exposure to damaging ultraviolet (UV) light rays (from the sun and tanning bed use).
Visual skin effects
Eventually, dwindling collagen and elastin levels show up on your skin. With fewer building blocks to keep your complexion looking firm, smooth, supple, and healthy, you see fine lines, wrinkles, diminished laxity (skin sag), and textural inconsistencies.
Restore your skin’s foundational structures
Collagen and elastin loss may be an inevitable catalyst of skin aging, but it’s by no means irreversible. Skin protein depletion is one of those uncommon aspects of aging that doesn’t have to be at face value. Why? Because it’s reversible.
Dermal fillers
Although a wide range of aesthetic treatments can help you minimize common signs of skin aging and turn back the hands of time, dermal fillers are the only solution that restores lost facial volume as it smooths wrinkles, erases fine lines, and revitalizes your skin.
Instant skin boost
What makes dermal fillers so effective? These minimally invasive cosmetic injectables — made with collagen, hyaluronic acid, and other pure substances — smooth out your skin in an instant, then actively work to restore your underlying dermal structures to renew your complexion from the inside out.
Enduring renewal
When skillfully injected into the right facial areas, fillers stimulate renewed collagen and elastin remodeling. But the regenerative effects of fillers extend beyond a single, immediate boost in skin protein production — restoring higher collagen and elastin levels prompts your skin to continue producing more collagen and elastin.
Unsurprisingly, fillers are one of the most requested aesthetic treatments that deliver immediate, long-lasting results with no downtime and few side effects or risks. Call our office or click online today to schedule a visit and learn more with Dr. Ioannou at Vida Dental Spa.