You’ve worked hard on your wellness journey, and the scale is finally tipping in your favor. But as your waistline shrinks, you may notice something unexpected in the mirror. While weight loss brings many benefits, rapid weight reduction can cause an unwelcome side effect—an aged facial appearance, often dubbed “Ozempic face.”
At TKLM Plastic Surgery, we congratulate you on your weight loss success but understand that facial aging can overshadow the joy of your accomplishment. Board-certified plastic surgeons Dr. Thomas Mustoe and Dr. Sammy Sinno can correct facial aging caused by weight loss, allowing you to fully celebrate your transformed appearance.
The Paradox of Success: Weight Loss and Facial Aging
Losing weight quickly—either through diet and exercise, bariatric surgery, or weight loss drugs like Ozempic—can change your facial appearance. Fat loss may cause skin laxity, leading to jowls, gaunt cheeks, and sagging skin.
Understanding Ozempic and Facial Changes
Ozempic’s active ingredient, semaglutide, mimics a hormone that prompts the release of insulin and targets areas of the brain involved in appetite regulation. These mechanisms make Ozempic highly effective for weight loss. However, as the body uses fat for energy, it doesn’t discriminate between the fat you want to lose and the fat that supports your facial structure.
Subcutaneous fat gives our faces a youthful, rounded appearance. Without this fat, the skin appears loose and the cheekbones and jawline become overly pronounced, giving the face a haggard look.
Clinical Observations and Patient Experiences
While Ozempic isn’t explicitly designed to target facial fat, the rapid weight loss it promotes can be particularly noticeable in the face. On one hand, patients achieve significant health benefits by reducing their body mass index (BMI); on the other, they face a new set of aesthetic concerns.
Managing Expectations: A Balancing Act
If you’re considering Ozempic, speak with your doctor to balance the health benefits of losing excess weight against the potential for increased facial aging. Just by being aware of this common side effect, you can manage your expectations, take preventive measures, and prepare for possible cosmetic procedures if you decide they’re needed.
How To Prevent Ozempic Face
While taking Ozempic, you can take steps to minimize facial aging. Adequate hydration, a balanced diet rich in vitamins and collagen-boosting nutrients, and a tailored skincare regimen can help. Still, despite these measures, most patients notice some degree of volume loss when they lose a significant amount of weight quickly.
Facelift: The Gold Standard for Reversing Ozempic Face
If preventive measures don’t work, cosmetic procedures can help. A facelift, or rhytidectomy, is the gold standard for correcting the signs of aging attributed to rapid weight loss—achieving transformative yet natural-looking results.
In a deep-plane facelift, the deeper layers of facial tissue are gently separated from their key anchoring points. This technique allows the facial muscles and fat to be repositioned and naturally tightened. The skin is carefully adjusted in alignment with the underlying structures to avoid a stretched or pulled appearance. To complement facelift procedures, Dr. Mustoe and Dr. Sinno use advanced fat transfer techniques to restore volume where needed.
Patients who have a facelift can expect to enjoy their rejuvenated appearance for up to 10 years or longer.
Learn how Dr. Mustoe and Dr. Sinno tailor facelift procedures to meet men’s aesthetic goals in this related blog post.
Facelift Before and After
The following before-and-after photos are from the galleries of Dr. Mustoe and Dr. Sinno.
Mini Facelift: A Less Invasive Option
A mini facelift may be the answer for patients with less pronounced facial aging.
A key benefit of opting for a mini facelift is the minimal downtime involved. Patients of Dr. Mustoe and Dr. Sinno typically resume work and their everyday routines in as little as 1 week after the procedure.
Learn more about choosing the right facelift technique in this related blog post.
Nonsurgical Alternatives
Alternatives are available for patients with mild facial aging or those who aren’t ready for surgery or downtime:
- Dermal fillers instantly restore volume and smooth out wrinkles. Some products also boost natural collagen production over time.
- Laser treatments refine skin texture and promote firmness by encouraging collagen renewal.
Schedule a Consultation
The best approach to facial fat loss and an aged appearance ultimately depends on your concerns and goals. If you’d like to speak with a board-certified plastic surgeon about your options, we invite you to call our office at (312) 788-2560 or request a consultation using our online form.
Visit Dr. Mustoe’s and Dr. Sinno’s galleries to see more facelift transformations.
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