REDUCE LINES
Around Mouth
Why We Get Them And How To Treat Them
We all use our mouth to interact on a daily basis, from smiling to talking, eating and laughing. Since it plays such an active part in all of our lives, it’s understandable that this is one of the main areas to show signs of aging as we get older. As such, some of the most frequently asked questions are how to reduce the lines around the mouth, how to reduce the lines around the lips and how to reduce the lines on the lips. If you want to know the answer to any of these questions, you’ve come to the right page.
Referenced to by aestheticians as perioral wrinkles, this phrase is used as something akin to a blanket term to describe the wrinkles and fine lines that materialize around the mouth region. These wrinkles can be split into three sub categories: marionette lines, smile lines and lipstick lines. Marionette lines are extremely common, and are recognized for taking up refuge at the corners of your lips and continuing down in a vertical line on either side of your chin. If you need a visual reference, think of the vertical lines on either side of any ventriloquist doll’s mouth. Sounding distinctly more cheerful, smile lines (also commonly referred to as nasolabial folds or simply laugh lines) are the lines that develop on either side of your mouth in a rounded downward slant from the edges of your nose to the corners of your lips. Moving onto lipstick lines (also known as smoker lines), these are the creases that are restricted to just the lip region rather than the surrounding area. They are typically distinguished as wrinkles that appear on your actual lips as well as above your top lip.
Now that we’ve broken down the types of lines that we get, it’s time to find out how to tackle them. Starting with lines around the lip area (marionette lines and smile lines), these can be targeted with either skincare products or dermal treatments. Though there is not a singular way to go about this, some of the most popular components utilized to treat such wrinkles are collagen-stimulating ingredients like retinol or bakuchiol. These help to strengthen the skin from the inside out and add some natural volume over time, making the lines in these areas look less harsh. A moisturizing product in the form of a cream or serum is also a good idea, since the skin gets progressively drier with age, which is another factor that contributes to making these lines more apparent. A mantra to live by – never skimp on hydration if you want a younger-looking complexion. In this vein, hyaluronic acid (or simply HA) is another ingredient known for its hydrating capabilities since it’s a humectant, meaning that it attracts water molecules, which is the reason why it’s so effective at adding dermal volume. Peptides and ceramides can also lend the products that you apply a helpful moisture boost. Both these ingredients actually have a surprisingly large role in how our skin looks and behaves – peptides are essentially the building blocks for the proteins that are present in our skin (i.e collagen, elastin and keratin), while ceramides are lipids (i.e. fats) that contribute to hydrating the dermis and safeguarding it against environmental stressors. These are the reasons why you’ll often find anti-aging skincare products infused with peptides and ceramides – they’re essential to a more youthful complexion with less visible wrinkles, which is especially advantageous for dry and mature skin.
Because it’s not possible to reap the rewards from a skincare product within mere hours of applying it because its benefits require a certain amount of time to take effect, some prefer a more instant approach. Dermal treatments including skin peels or lasers have been found to prove successful for some people in their fight against harsher wrinkles in the mouth area. Microneedling is also a very popular treatment since, by forcing the skin to heal itself, collagen production is triggered which promotes a firmer, more even skin tone and texture. You can read about the treatments mentioned in more detail on our Dermal Treatments page.
As for lines directly on the lips, some people prefer dermal fillers to be administered to address these, since they provide more instant results. Though it may not be initially apparent, bone loss actually plays a large part in how our lips appear the older we get. The reason for this is that the density of our facial bones declines with age, and this change can take place as early on as thirty years old. Bone density loss can result in sagging skin and puckering around the mouth area, which can cause the outside edges of the lips to roll down and inwards. This alteration, alongside the collagen loss in our dermis, makes them look thinner than they did when we were younger, which is also when the lines on them tend to become more visible. Though the wrinkles above your lips can be treated with skincare, collagen-stimulating fillers such as those that contain hyaluronic acid can also be a good place to start since they help to instantly restore any lost natural volume.
If you’d like to learn about the process of dermal aging and what it entails, check out our blog post on What Is Dermal Aging? For more information about hyaluronic acid, peptides and ceramides, visit our posts on What Is Hyaluronic Acid?, What Are Peptides? and What Are Ceramides? To read more about the best anti-aging ingredients in skincare, visit our page on Anti-aging Ingredients.