When it comes to the signs of aging — wrinkles, dark spots, and loose skin — most people focus on the face, ignoring the skin on their hands. But your hands take the brunt of repeated scrubbing and unprotected sun exposure, and they show signs of aging more quickly than your face. If you neglect this very visible body part, your face and hands may be telling two different stories.
But you can get them back on the same page again with quick and simple injectable treatments. Dr. Michael Macdonald at Aesthetic Surgery Center in San Francisco, California, specializes in helping women and men achieve their aesthetic goals, whether they need a minor noninvasive treatment or highly skilled plastic surgery.
If your hands are showing signs of getting older, he recommends injectable dermal fillers to address the sunken, thinning look of aging hands. Here’s what you need to know.
What happened to my hands?
Just like the skin on your face and everywhere else on your body, the skin on your hands changes over time. If you place your hands next to a child’s, you’ll see a stark difference in the texture, tone, and plumpness.
Volume
The human body slows down as it ages — it’s just a fact of life. You produce fewer hormones, your muscle mass declines, your metabolism gets sluggish, and you lose the fat under the surface of your skin. Without this plump layer, your skin sinks and sags, revealing the contours of the bones beneath.
Dryness
Over time, nails, hair, and skin lose essential moisture needed to keep them soft and pliable. Hair and nails become brittle, and skin gets flaky, scaly, and ashen. Lotions and creams may help for the moment, but what you really need is moisture from within in the form of natural oils.
Staying well hydrated, sleeping and eating well, and avoiding long periods of immersion in water can help, but eventually, age catches up and robs you of essential moisture.
Spots
Sun exposure is your skin’s enemy. Although a limited amount of time in the sun helps your body produce vitamin D, most people get too much sun, and it shows on their skin — especially their hands. The sun’s UV rays penetrate the outer layer of your skin and stimulate the production of melanin, or pigment. When melanin forms clumps, it shows up as dark spots on your skin also called age spots.
Restoring volume to your aging hands
Dr. Macdonald offers a nonsurgical, minimally invasive treatment that can breathe life back into your aging hands. Dermal fillers can do for your hands what they do for your face, restoring volume and reviving the plumper, thicker texture of your younger years.
There are many dermal fillers available, and each has unique properties that address specific issues. For hand rejuvenation, Dr. Macdonald uses Radiesse®️. In 2015, Radiesse became the first dermal filler to receive FDA approval for restoring lost volume in hands.
Each Radiesse injection is filled with countless tiny microspheres of calcium hydroxyapatite suspended in a gel-like solution. Dr. Macdonald inserts a very small needle into strategic areas on the back of each hand and gently massages the Radiesse gel where he wants it to settle.
The plumping solution fills in the sunken areas and recontours your hands while simultaneously smoothing surface wrinkles by replacing lost volume. It also lasts one-and-a-half to two years!
Bonus collagen
One of the reasons hands begin to thin and sag is that your body has slowed down its production of collagen, an essential protein that gives your skin its strength and structure. Radiesse injections stimulate your body’s own collagen-producing mechanisms so your hands’ new look is not only due to the Radiesse solution, but your ongoing collagen supply as well.
The Radiesse microspheres provide a scaffolding for your new collagen to build upon, so your hands get a double dose of rejuvenating plumpness.
And what about age spots on hands? Radiesse replaces lost volume, but if you have age spots you want to get rid of as well, talk to Dr. Macdonald about combining your Radiesse treatment with a BBL phototherapy treatment, which works to break up clumps of melanin and send them on their way.
If you’re bothered by your hands giving away your age, the fix is easy and painless. Contact us by calling the office today, or request an appointment online. It’s time to turn back the clock on your hands.