Why Do Wrinkles Form On The Skin?

Wrinkle and Its Types:

We all know what wrinkles look like since we have and will get in contact with them one way or another. Most of us don’t know how we get them. It’s very important to know the root cause of a problem to solve it, and here we are. We will delve into the mysteries of the wrinkles to know what we can and can’t do about them.

The wrinkle is a deep crease or depression on the surface of the skin. Mainly the wrinkles are categorized into three broad categories which encompass almost every type of fold in the skin.

1.    Fine Lines: these are the very fine and shallow lines and are usually hard to see in a glance at first. These lines are the very first sign of the ageing. Some of these lines become deeper if not treated at this stage. The example of fine lines is crow’s feet.

2.    Deep Lines: these are the very pronounced grooves and furrows on the skin. These deep furrows tend to be long and straight. Examples include nasolabial folds, lines on the forehead, and glabellar lines.

3.    Folds: these are the eventual result of the fine lines and the final stage of the wrinkle. Folds are caused by the overlapping of the skin and are almost impossible to treat. Mostly they appear very later in the life.

There is another type of wrinkle categorization based on their motion. Mainly the wrinkles are two main types according to this category:

1.    Dynamic Wrinkles: these wrinkles appear on the face as result of certain
expressions, such as smiling, or frowning. They appear because of the movement of specific muscles and become deeper with age. In the later stage of life, these wrinkles become fixed on the skin regardless of the muscle movement.

2.    Static Wrinkles: these wrinkles don’t require muscular movement to appear. They are usually caused by photo ageing or intrinsic or natural ageing process.

How Do the Wrinkles Form?

Our skin drapes the muscles, fat and bone of our body. When we are young these muscles, fat and bone are tightly held together with each other and the skin drapes smoothly over them. With age, the connection between them become loose as the muscles begin to sag due to various factors. Because of the loosening of this connection, the skin starts the fall in the empty creases, forming wrinkles.

Reasons behind wrinkles formation:

1.    Loss of Fat:
As we age, we lose the natural fat beneath our skin which makes our face look hollow. The loss of fat means the loss of skin volume, and loss of skin volume means there is less surface for the skin to drape over. The amount of the skin remain same but the covered substance become lesser hence, the skin develops folds

2.    Reduced Bone Formation:
Fat is not the only thing which we lose with ageing. Our body is constantly manufacturing new osteocytes (bone cells) and replacing the old ones. Because of this, we are constantly renewing our bones and recycling the minerals from the older ones. With age, the process slows down and as a result, we start to lose our bones. Again, the amount of the substance for the skin to drape over is decreased, resulting in wrinkle formation.

3.    Loss of Collagen:
Collagen is one of the most abundant proteins in our body and is found in the dermis. It provides a scaffolding to the skin to maintain its structure. When inflammation occurs on the skin, the collagen is broken down by an enzyme called Collagenase, to be replaced by the newly formed collagen. This is the intrinsic response of the body towards an injury. When we are younger, the rate of break down and the rate of formation of the collagen is the same. But with ageing, the rate of formation decreases, as a result, the wrinkles are formed.

With intrinsic ageing, the dermis gets thinner due to the loss of collagen. While with photo ageing, the dermis remains same, but the stratum corneum gets thicker, impeding the collagen formation. A non surgical facelift is a procedure which can remedy the early loss of collagen due to photo ageing. It utilizes the body’s function of stimulating collagen formation by micro injuries and inflammation. The procedure requires almost no downtime and is pain-free.

4.    Repeated facial movements:
As explained above, this is the main cause of the dynamic wrinkles. When we make expressions, the muscles under our skin contract and relax when we release the expression. With age, due to many reasons, the relaxation process slows down and the wrinkles become set into the folds of the skin.

The above are some of the reasons for wrinkle formations. There are many preventive and proactive measures that can be taken to slow down the wrinkle formation. Most of them require non-surgical cosmetic procedures and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.