What are Accordion Lines?
When we smile, our muscles pull the corners of our mouth outwards and upwards, resulting in the shortening of the skin between our mouth and our ears. When we do this, our skin needs to fold, which results in the formation of vertical lines in the cheek, usually a centimetre or two lateral from the corners of the mouth.
Those lines are normal and usually become more noticeable with age. There is no need to take action regarding these lines, but if you decide to soften or reduce their visibility, it is worthwhile to understand the underlying causes of the ageing process so that you can select the most suitable treatments to achieve your goals.
What are the Aging Changes that Result in These Lines
When we age, we lose the volume of fatty tissue that sits under the skin of the face, especially in the areas in the middle and the back of the cheeks. This means that when the skin moves with our expressions, we have less padding between our skin and our muscle, which contributes to wrinkles and folding in this area. The skin also loses collagen and elastin, which results in small movements of the skin creating more obvious folding and wrinkling.
Treating Accordion Lines
Accordion lines result from smiling and are a normal facial feature that should be embraced as a manifestation of strong positive emotions. They do not need to be treated. If you do decide to seek treatment for accordion lines, it is important to select a practitioner who understands the ageing process and who can explain to you the pros and cons of all of the various treatment options in order to help you select the treatments that are right for you.
Treatment options include those treatments that help to revolumise the cheeks, such as strategically placed dermal fillers or EmFace treatments using electricval stimulation that results in tightening and lifting of the cheeks.
Other treatment options include:
- Exion Radiofrequency microneedling (that boosts skin collagen levels and therefore reduces skin wrinkles at rest and with movement)
- Ablative lasers (that cause both skin remodelling and skin tightening)
