Facial rejuvenation is any cosmetic or medical procedure used to increase or restore the appearance of a younger age to human face

Face

The face is a central sense organ complex, for those animals that have one, normally on the ventral surface of the head, and can, depending on the definition in the human case, include the hair, forehead, eyebrow, eyelashes, eyes, nose, ears, cheeks, mouth, lips, philtrum, temple, teeth, skin, and...

. The specific term, however, refers to a set of surgical procedures which try to restore facial geometry and skin

Human skin

The human skin is the outer covering of the body. In humans, it is the largest organ of the integumentary system. The skin has multiple layers of ectodermal tissue and guards the underlying muscles, bones, ligaments and internal organs. Human skin is similar to that of most other mammals,...

 appearance which are typical of youth, by using a combination of brow lift, elimination of eye bags, eyelid

Eyelid

An eyelid is a thin fold of skin that covers and protects an eye. With the exception of the prepuce and the labia minora, it has the thinnest skin of the whole body. The levator palpebrae superioris muscle retracts the eyelid to "open" the eye. This can be either voluntarily or involuntarily...

s lift, elimination of senile spots, skin aging, facial sagging and wrinkle

Wrinkle

A wrinkle is a fold, ridge or crease in the skin. Skin wrinkles typically appear as a result of aging processes such as glycation or, temporarily, as the result of prolonged immersion in water. Wrinkling in the skin is caused by habitual facial expressions, aging, sun damage, smoking, poor...

s by face lift and rhytidectomy

Rhytidectomy

A facelift, technically known as a rhytidectomy , is a type of cosmetic surgery procedure used to give a more youthful appearance...

 and physical or chemical peeling, chin lift (reduction of double chin), restoration of facial hair

Hair

Hair is a filamentous biomaterial, that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Found exclusively in mammals, hair is one of the defining characteristics of the mammalian class....

line, etc. These procedures are usually successful and in some cases achieve striking results. Examples of facial rejuvenation treatments are Fractional Radiofrequency and Ultherapy, both non-invasive procedures stimulating the body's own regenerative process of building new skin and tighten the skin.

Other procedures are:

• Botox injections
• DMAE creams
• Permanent makeup
  Permanent makeup
  Permanent makeup is a cosmetic technique which employs tattoos as a means of producing designs that resemble makeup, such as eyelining and other permanent enhancing colors to the skin of the face, lips, and eyelids...
  
  
• Facial toning
  Facial toning
  Facial toning is a type of cosmetic procedure which promises to alter facial contour and reduce wrinkles, sagging and expression marks in the face by means of increasing muscle tone, increasing facial volume by promoting muscular hypertrophy, and preventing muscle loss due to aging. It is therefore...
  
  
• Collagen injection
• Cosmetic acupuncture

Influence of changes in bone structure

More recent research has pointed out the influence of changes in the facial skeleton

Skeleton

The skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...

 with age on the appearance of "oldness", especially in the mid-face area and the lower part of the orbit

Orbit

In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...

s around the nose

Human nose

The visible part of the human nose is the protruding part of the face that bears the nostrils. The shape of the nose is determined by the ethmoid bone and the nasal septum, which consists mostly of cartilage and which separates the nostrils...

. quantitative study with CAT scans of the faces of men and women in several age brackets http://www.999today.com/healthandmedicine/news/story/1962.html has revealed that there is an appreciable amount of loss of bone

Bone

Bones are rigid organs that constitute part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue...

 tissue in these regions with age, leading to changes in angles, lengths and volumes, and also decreasing the distance between the eye

Human eye

The human eye is an organ which reacts to light for several purposes. As a conscious sense organ, the eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including color differentiation and the perception of depth...

s. This occurs earlier in women than in man. It has been hypothesised that skin sagging and wrinkles may occur not only because of loss of soft tissue and fat, but also because bone retraction creates an excess of skin which is no longer flexible. Future facial rejuvenation techniques may take into account these findings and restore bone lost by aging processes.

Visual appraisal of facial youthness

Human visual perception

Visual perception

Visual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from the effects of visible light reaching the eye. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight, or vision...

 is notable to its sensitivity and accuracy in estimating or perceiving age by instant pattern recognition

Pattern recognition

In machine learning, pattern recognition is the assignment of some sort of output value to a given input value , according to some specific algorithm. An example of pattern recognition is classification, which attempts to assign each input value to one of a given set of classes...

 of facial features. Often, human faces with no measurable difference in facial geometry and appearance are perceived as having different ages. This mechanism is not yet entirely understood, but they may be related to the subtle changes in facial bone structure related above.

Trends in facial rejuvenation

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons

American Society of Plastic Surgeons

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons is the largest plastic surgery specialty organization in the world. Founded in 1931, the society is composed of surgeons certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery or by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada who perform Plastic and...

, more than 114,000 facelifts and nearly 55,000 forehead lifts were performed in the USA in 2004, the majority on women. A significant upward trend on the number of facial rejuvenation procedures is predicted, due to the following factors:

1. Men have also started to perform these procedures at increasing numbers;
2. Emphasis on image of youthfulness by the mass media
   Mass media
   Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
   
    and fashion
   Fashion
   Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
   
   ;
3. Increasing numbers of senior people enjoying good health
   Health
   Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...
   
   and financial affluence at older ages;
4. Decreasing costs of surgery and other cosmetic procedures, making them affordable to all