Some news for the one hundred thousand people who got facelifts last year to make their faces look younger; there is a cheaper option and it's not Botox.
Athletic clubs across the country are now joining in the fad of offering "facial exercise" classes purporting to tighten up facial muscles in a natural way.
In Manhattan you can take a class called "Facial Magic," in Washington, D.C. you can take "Face Val-U," in Pittsburgh is it "Fresh Face Yoga," and in Boston it is "Facercise." With a variety of names, these classes are all the same thing: facial exercises.
Picture a room full of people, their faces frozen in huge grins. Then the people move their eyebrows up and down and massage their temples.
Moving your face around may seem less strenuous than jogging on the treadmill, but advocates of facial exercise programs say that it works in the same way, by building muscles.
The aging process of the skin is entirely natural, but according to the National Institutes of Health it is dramatically speeded up by environmental factors. Exposure to sunlight has the greatest aging effect on skin. Overall, the changes in your skin don't happen on the outside layer, called the epidermis, but on the layer underneath it: the dermis.
The dermis is composed of layers of fat, connective tissue and blood vessels. All of these are effected as you age and the end result is that your skin becomes saggy and less protected throughout your life.
Getting a facelift is one way that people, commonly in their 30s and 40s, try to appear younger.
In this procedure, a surgeon separates the epidermis from the underlying dermis and then stretches the skin back across the face.
This can lead to bruising and swelling; the average recovery period is one to two weeks.
In a 2003 survey, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons found the average cost of a facelift to be $5,283. This is even more expensive than an average liposuction, breast augmentation, or tummy tuck. So the question becomes, with increasing other options, is this high price worth it?
Though over a hundred thousand people got face lifts last year, this number has been steadily declining in recent years due to the emergence of Botox injections.
Botox was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1989 to treat eye muscle disorders, and approved in 2002 to decrease wrinkles. This summer it was approved for an additional use, treating excessive underarm sweating.
Botox injections are popular because they average only $376 per injection, much cheaper than a face lift. In addition, people recover in only a few hours from the numbness that the injections cause.
Despite the growing popularity of Botox injections, there are some risks to it, which is why the idea of totally natural facial exercises is becoming even more appealing to people.
For only a few dollars a month, classes or instructional videos tell you how to perk up your facial features.
An article from The Washington Post explored the idea of facial exercises and found that their advocates cited muscle building, reducing tension, and getting rid of asymmetries in the face as reasons why these exercises work. They propose that building up muscles within the face stretches out the skin in the same way that a facelift does.
Before you go enroll in a facial exercise class, know that it is not something that doctors have all begun to endorse.
Some, including those interviewed in the recent Washington Post article, admit that the classes have benefits because they encourage people to pay attention to their face, the same way they pay attention to their body posture.
Other doctor's however, think the classes could actually be detrimental. Through the excessive movement of ones face, they could actually be speeding up the aging process.
The best way, of course, to stay young and healthy is to take care of yourself throughout your life. Smile a lot, wear sunscreen and love the face you were born with.
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