Age Slower...Target Facial Volume Loss

1. Facial Bone Loss With Age

Here’s an email I received recently:

Hi Tonya, I am 58. I had an unsuccessful facelift 7 years ago and I lost a lot of volume in my face. My lower face just looks sunken in. I’m looking for help!

Wrinkles, we think, are the biggest revealers of age. But it’s the changes in bone structure that contribute in a huge way toward making us look older. It’s scientifically proven that our skeletal framework loses volume with age. This loss of bone volume is called age-related resorption.

On the picture above the arrows indicate the areas of the facial skeleton susceptible to resorption with aging. The size of the arrow correlates with the amount of resorption.

The upper jaw reduces by as much as 10%. The jaw itself gets smaller. Teeth recede. The mouth becomes sunken. The skull shrinks and the skin covering it becomes too large. Just imagine a king size sheet on a queen size bed. Wrinkle city!

Bones and connective tissues are constantly changing in response to stress. They are rearranged and remodeled regularly.  Bone cells, called osteoblasts and osteoclasts, are responsible for this process. 

Osteoclasts are responsible for cleansing and resorption of thinning and damaged bone tissue.  Osteoblasts evolve in new bone formation. They restore and build new bone tissue by providing calcium and phosphorus. With age, the activity of osteoblasts decreases, especially in women during and post-menopause. But osteoclasts continue bone resorption.

So, what’s the answer? It might just be piezoelectricity.

Piezoelectricity
Piezoelectricity is an electrical charge that results from the application of mechanical stress. When a material is subjected to that stress, it produces an electrical change. Piezo means “to stress.” Many materials have this piezoelectric quality including many mineral crystals, ceramics, and animal and human bone.

When experiencing stress, bones produce piezoelectricity. This, in turn, produces electrical dipoles which attract osteoblasts (the cells that build bones). The osteoblasts deposit calcium and other minerals on the stressed parts of the bone. Read more in Prevent Facial Bone Loss with Facial Exercises.
 

Facial Weight Bearing Exercise

One simple facial exercise—performed with a water bottle—can reduces the signs of aging in your face. Watch this short video on the left.

It will shape your face contour. Work out your cheekbone muscles. Rid your wrinkles in the cheek area. Reduce that double chin and lift the face. And it can remove fatty deposits around the jaw. 

Here’s how to start.

Get a small empty water bottle—a maximum of half a liter. Hold the bottle’s mouth with just your lips. This is a lips-only exercise—no jaw or teeth involved. Start with 10 seconds. Then gradually get to 30 seconds. Work up to a minute. When it gets too easy at any stage, add a little water… a little more… and more still.

This exercise will work out the Orbicularis Oris muscle (the muscle around the lips). Since all the muscles of our face are linked in one way or another, this exercise will engage and work out different muscles across the whole face.

It is important not to do more than three sets of this exercise. You can easily overdo it. Make sure no new wrinkles or folds form on your face as you do this exercise.

Tip: Perform this exercise, as you should all facial exercises, using a mirror. Be fully attentive. Focus on what’s happening with your muscles. As you begin to master this exercise, focus on your own face, not on mine.

After the exercise, if you feel some tension in the face muscles is felt, relax it by using your RejuvaCup or RejuvaCup HD.

To see more weight bearing exercises read my article: Prevent Facial Bone Loss with Facial Exercises.

2. Exercise Your Jaw

Bone Loss in Your Jaw

One massage therapist told me that when she’s working on a face, she can feel where a client has missing teeth. If her client has a dental bridge in the lower jaw, she feels a cavity in the middle where bone loss is taking place. The chin bone becomes thin where the tooth is absent. Use it or lose it—the old saying takes on real meaning here.

Jawbone is preserved through the stimulating pressure of chewing. When that pressure is removed through tooth loss, the bone reabsorbs it into the body. In the first year after tooth extraction, about 25% of bone is lost, and this bone loss continues on, year after year. Without the continuing movement and pressure of healthy teeth in active use, there’s no need for bone strength, volume, or density. Tooth gone…bone shrinks.

The best way to protect your teeth is to keep your gums health!

Bentonite Oral Balm with White Oak Bark and Wheatgrass Extract 

Our Oral Balm shipment has arrived. We’ve been out of stock for weeks, so many of you have gone without. Thanks so much for your patience.

You’ll be pleased to know we’ve made an improvement! We’ve increased the concentration of tea tree oil, white oak bark, eucalyptus, and calendula. And this balm contains wheatgrass powder, turmeric, and stevia—only the best for your oral health! All these ingredients are recognized natural remedies for strengthening the gums, and they have detoxifying and anti-inflammatory properties. This is as natural as toothpaste gets!

Conventional whitening toothpaste contains abrasives and bleaching agents like silica, pyrophosphates, hydrogen peroxide, or carbamide peroxide. Our Bentonite Oral Balm contains none of these. However, bentonite clay has been used from ancient times to whiten teeth. It is a highly active compound that can remove plaque and tartar. But it’s mild enough that it won’t destroy enamel.

Bentonite clay is exceptionally absorbent. Bentonite binds with toxins and heavy metals from your mouth. This process cleans tooth surfaces and removes stains. Bentonite clay does a superb job of keeping your mouth free of bad breath and gum issues. Also, bentonite clay is rich in sodium, which makes your teeth naturally white.
 

Chew a Healthy Gum

To avoid that sunken, aging look that comes with deteriorating bone structure, you must exercise your jaw.

Popping in a piece of Siberian Eco Gum is a great way to get your exercise - even in public! The good news?

Regular serious chewing not only creates anti-bacterial saliva, increasing the fresh blood flow to affected areas, but provides pressure to re-grow lost bone.

Daily gum care is also necessary to preserve your teeth. The best way to do it is with our Oral Balm. Bone reduction can also result from periodontitis, a condition where bacteria gradually eats away the jawbone and the periodontal ligaments that connect teeth to bone.