Chest Rejuvenation
Advanced Décolleté Treatment Options in the San Diego Area
Dr. Melanie Palm is a nationally recognized dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon specializing in décolleté treatment and rejuvenation of the aging chest. Her offices are located in Solana Beach, CA just north of San Diego. Dr. Palm lectures nationally on chest rejuvenation and is a key opinion leader and advisory board member for Galderma & Merz, the makers of Sculptra and Ultherapy, both used for treatment to the décolleté. She offers many effective treatment options for improving the appearance of the chest.
Aging of the Chest
The delicate skin of our chest is often forgotten. For the most part, we tend to take better care of protecting our face than other areas of our body, such as the chest, hands, or neck, This shows with time and a clear aging division begins to exist between the appearance of our face and our neck and chest.
What are the characteristic features of aging changes to the chest? Listed below are common findings on the décolleté as we age:
With time, the skin on the chest thins and skin texture changes. Elasticity of the skin may become compromised, and side sleeping may accentuate the development of wrinkles in the center of the chest.
Chronic sun exposure over time causes pigmentary changes to the skin. Sun spots, brown discoloration, and even white spots may appear due to UV exposure. Chronic light exposure may even cause the appearance of precancerous spots and skin cancer.
Soft tissue support, largely fat, becomes increasingly scarce over time. This leads to a more skeletonized appearance of the chest, where the chest bone (sternum) and ribs become more visible.
A loss of tissue support and aging changes over time allow veins to become more visible with age. Breast augmentation may also cause circulatory changes in the skin of the chest that causes veins to become more prominent.
Treatment Options for Chest Rejuvenation
The correct choice or combination of treatment options for chest rejuvenation depend on the underlying cosmetic concern to be treated. This is extremely important not only to successful procedures but also for patient satisfaction.
The following treatments are commonly used alone or in combination for chest rejuvenation and reversing the signs of aging in the décolleté area:
- Sun spots/brown discoloration: Laser and light treatments are usually the treatment of choice for brown discoloration of the skin including age spots. IPL and Spectra can target these spots on the skin
- Precancerous lesions: Actinic keratoses are precancerous lesions on the skin due to chronic sun exposure. They can be treated with liquid nitrogen cryotherapy, topical chemotherapy medications, and a light-based procedure called photodynamic therapy (PDT).
- Skin textural changes: topical retinols and retinoids are helpful for maintaining and building collagen with an at home procedure. In-office procedures for boosting collagen production include the limited downtime ResurFX procedure and laser skin resurfacing.
- Sculptra: Sculptra is an injectable volumizer that utilizes the body to build collagen in the area of placement. Sculptra has been used and found effective in published clinical studies for the rejuvenation of the chest region. It builds a collagen network that minimizes and reduces the appearance of vertical wrinkles and crepey skin in the décolleté region.
- Ultherapy: Ultherapy is a ultrasound-based device that primarily helps with skin tightening, although a superficial setting can help with skin textural improvements in the décolleté region. It is FDA-cleared for skin tightening and rejuvenation of the chest.
- Radiesse: this calcium-based filler is FDA-approved for restoration of volume on the hands and face, but it can be blended with local numbing to provide support to a bony chest. It provides instant results that last approximately 9-12 months. 1-2 sessions are typically necessary for best results.
- Fat transfer: One’s own fat can be taken from a donor site and implanted subtly into the décolleté and chest with fat transplantation. Results are typically longer-lasting than temporary fillers, and may persist for years.
- Sclerotherapy: injection of veins can reduce and eliminate the appearance of unsightly and enlarged veins. Treatment of chest veins is safe and effective and works well on blue-green vessels called reticular veins as well as spider veins called telangiectasias.
- IPL: Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) can be used on the chest to clear up fine spider veins not able to be treated or cleared with sclerotherapy.
A combination approach is sometimes ideal to improve the appearance of the décolleté region. Non-invasive and minimally invasive techniques are often combined with topical skin care regimens at Art of Skin MD to achieve the aesthetic goals of our patients in regards to aging changes of the chest.
If you are in the San Diego area and would like to discuss your chest rejuvenation, and décolleté treatment options, call Dr. Melanie Palm at 858.792.SKIN (7546) to schedule your appointment.
