I consider regular facial exercises to prevent or improve facial winkles as complete nonsense. This will only make your mimic lines worse!
In Aesthetic Dermatology we use products such as Botox and Bocouture to reduce (i.e. normalise!) facial over-movement, as this is the root cause for most of our facial lines and wrinkles, especially on the upper face (we call these ‘dynamic’ or ‘mimic’ lines). Think worry lines on the forehead, frown lines between the eyebrows and crow’s feet around the eyes. All of these are mimic lines, which can be dramatically improved by reducing activity of underlying mimic muscles.
With facial exercises you would do exactly the opposite of a Botox or Bocouture treatment – training your facial muscles to move more – causing more mimic lines to follow. Don’t do it!
In my opinion, the entire facial exercise movement is based on one important misconception. Yes, with age, we are loosing facial volume (especially in the cheek area, which becomes noticeably flatter, making us look tired, gaunt and old. However, this loss of volume is mainly fat loss (plus some bone resorption), not muscle loss! In fact, our facial muscles are really quite thin, not bulky like on the body. So the age-related ‘deflation’ of our faces it NOT due to muscle loss, but mainly fat loss.
In summary – I do not recommend facial exercises to prevent or treat facial lines and wrinkles – quite the opposite. Trust me … I am a Dermatologist.
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