Aging hands – nobody enjoys that part of getting older.
Hands often age far more quickly than faces. They get more abuse and less attention. We drive a lot in Florida so our hands get more sun exposure – that means more spots and pigmentation, more cell damage and more wrinkles. Outside of wearing gloves – which one of my patients has resorted to and which is not a bad idea if you are driving often – the options for hand rejuvenation have not been all that great.
I saw that my own hands that looked more skeletal than I wanted. With Radiesse being my favorite filler product, I elected to have injections into the back of my hand to see what the effect would be.
A hit…and combined with some laser treatments, spots reduced quickly.
I know women are far more concerned with their hands than men, and the issue of “old hands – young face” has been a problem for many of my patients. Those who have kept abreast of technology and opted for facial treatments like Thermage, Pelleve, eMatrix and Fraxel and the various fillers were really happy with the younger appearance of their face, but not happy with the way their hands “told” on them.
Hand rejuvenation seems to be taking off in a lot of areas around the country and some doctors are using the hyaluronic acid fillers for this same purpose. The problem there, in my opinion, is that the HA’s are short-term and Radiesse is long term. Simply from pure cost effectiveness, Radiesse makes more sense.
Back to the issue of age spots. That in itself can sometimes be all that a patient needs for the time being. We use an Alexandrite laser to break up the melanin. In a couple of weeks, the spots are gone. At that point, further treatment is begun if the patient decides some volume restoration is in order.
I’ve been asked about Sclerotherapy for managing some of the vein prominence that causes a “ropey” look across the top of the hand. Granted, large veins can be distracting, and that might demand a larger volume of Radiesse, but you have to be quite careful with using sclerosing treatments in that area. I’m not certain that Sclerotherapy is as safe an option as the combination therapy we’re using here, but I will investigate it further.
And don’t forget sunscreen. The sun is glorious here but it can create a lot of havoc with your skin on your hands and everywhere else. Keep some in the car and in your purse for frequent use.
See some of our hand photo sets and a video of Radiesse injection
