Preventative Treatments for Younger Women

Matthew Pruitt is the owner of NuVision, a boutique medical spa in Manhattan that offers a range of laser-based procedures including Lasik to BOTOX and skin rejuvenation. Here he discusses why younger women are beginning to ask for anti-aging treatments, and which procedures have become the most popular.

What we have found recently—and this is an interesting paradigm shift—is that our patient base for anti-aging remedies is getting younger. This is to the extent that a lot of people are asking for cosmetic procedures because they want to try to prevent future lines and wrinkles.

Treatments such as fillers and BOTOX are two options that are always popular with younger people. BOTOX for women in their mid-20s, especially, is a common thing to try right now. And for those men and women who have deeper furrows—laugh lines that are very deep or wrinkles in the forehead—we can use fillers to eliminate those problems.

Both BOTOX and fillers are fairly short-term options. BOTOX can last four months, although it’s usually in the neighborhood of three months. And with fillers, depending on the type of filler that is used, you are looking at six months to nine months before another treatment is needed. But regardless of what specific treatment is used, both fillers and BOTOX treatments are option that are relatively temporary in nature.

When a woman in her 20s comes into the medical spa, most of the time she is coming in for one of two things: to erase crow’s feet or diminish lines or the forehead. And then there is the glabellar area—the smooth area in between the eyebrows—which women want to keep smooth and furrow free. In all cases, it is genetics that are what is going to determine whether or not you have a crease in your forehead when you frown or raise your eyebrows, or if you’re going to have crow’s feet.

The more you smile, the deeper those crow’s feet are going to get over time. If you can actually stop those muscles from having that function, you are going to be able to decrease the chances of getting those wrinkles. And you can do it preventatively with the proper use of BOTOX.

Using BOTOX around the forehead and the crow’s feet makes sense, and it’s getting hugely popular. The more girls who try it and tell their friends, the more the more younger women we have coming in to the spa and asking about it. We actually have BOTOX parties for our 20-something patients for this type of preventative care. And it continues to build in popularity.

When you start getting into treatments like the lasers— where you are using the Affirm and the YAG lasers—that is for people who already have lines they are trying to get rid of. It doesn’t make sense to use lasers preventatively because they just are not going to give you a big benefit in the long run. That’s because your collagen production continues well into your 20s, and it doesn’t start falling off until you get into your 30s. So until you get to that point where collagen production is dropping, laser treatments aren’t a good investment for younger folks to consider.

However, with that said, if someone in their 20s comes into NuVision requesting to do something more significant to their face than a simple BOTOX procedure, we would tell them that their best option is to hold off and stay out of the sun while they are young, because we really reserve our intensive laser technologies for people who are middle aged.

The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.