How to Get Rid of Wrinkles: Retinol, Fillers & Other Treatments (2024)

What are wrinkles?

Wrinkles are lines that form on your skin. Similar to the creases in a shirt that needs ironing, wrinkles can form on your skin — most often on your face, neck, hands and arms. They can look like folds or ridges on your skin. Wrinkles are a natural part of your body’s aging process.

What causes wrinkles?

There are many factors that contribute to the onset of wrinkles, including:

• Aging: As you get older, your skin cells divide slowly, which causes the outer layer of your skin to thin and wrinkles to form. You also lose about 1% of your collagen each year starting in your 30s.
• Facial muscle contractions: You use the facial muscles in your body to smile, frown or squint. Over time, these muscles cause frown lines between your eyebrows and crow’s feet at the corners of your eyes because of weakened fat or bone mass and the effects of gravity on your skin.
• Sun damage: Exposing your skin to the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays can cause your skin to age prematurely. The sun can damage collagen in your skin, which provides the elasticity and flexibility your skin needs to prevent wrinkles.
• Smoking: Tobacco products cause your body to slow down its production of collagen. Too little collagen causes wrinkles.

What are the treatment options for wrinkles?

Since wrinkles are a normal part of your body’s aging process, they don’t need treatment. If you don’t like how wrinkles look on your skin, there are treatment options available to cosmetically improve your appearance.

Retinoids

Retinoids that include retinol, retinal aldehyde (Retin-A), retinyl esters, adapalene, tazarotene and tretinoin are chemicals that come from vitamin A that help reduce lines and wrinkles in your skin and improve your skin’s texture, pigment and hydration levels. You can find retinol in many over-the-counter skin care products. Retinol can penetrate deep into your skin’s layers to activate collagen and elastin, which give your skin structure and support to prevent wrinkles. You can apply products that contain retinoids at home directly onto your skin as you would a lotion or a moisturizer. Check with your healthcare provider to make sure products that include retinoids are right for you.

Micro-needling

Micro-needling, or skin needling, is a facial rejuvenation procedure that uses a device with several tiny needles that poke you to create a miniature wound in the top layer of your skin (epidermis). This wound heals within minutes and causes new collagen and elastin to form as your skin heals. Micro-needling is effective at improving wrinkles or fine lines in your skin.

Microdermabrasion

Microdermabrasion gently removes or sands away thick or uneven outer layers of your skin. This treatment is best to treat scarring or stretch marks, skin discoloration or sun damage.

Dermabrasion

Dermabrasion scrapes away layers of your skin. This treatment removes skin layers to reduce wrinkles or irregular skin depressions. This helps you regain smoother, more youthful-looking skin.

Chemical peels

Chemical peels dissolve skin imperfections using small amounts of a chemical solution. The solution removes the top layers of your skin and makes room for new, healthy skin to grow in its place. Chemical peels are best to treat wrinkles, skin discoloration or scars.

Laser skin resurfacing

Laser skin resurfacing reduces facial wrinkles and irregularities caused by sun damage or acne. The laser technique directs short, concentrated pulsating beams of light at sections of your skin. You're an ideal candidate for laser skin resurfacing if you have:

• Fine lines under or around your eyes, forehead or mouth.
• Wrinkles under or around your eyes, forehead or mouth.
• Scars from acne.

If you have active acne, you should wait until your acne is well controlled before pursuing laser treatment. Laser resurfacing is generally better suited for fair-skinned individuals, as people with dark skin have a higher risk of their skin tone darkening (hyperpigmentation) with certain treatments.

Botulinum toxin type A (Botox®, Dysport, Xeomin, Juveau) injection therapy

Neuromodulators or wrinkle-relaxing treatments, like Botox®, are medicines derived from the botulinum toxin. They block the chemical signals that cause your muscles to contract. Your healthcare provider will inject these medicines into the muscles whose contractions cause wrinkles, such as between your eyebrows (frown lines) and the lines that extend from the corners of your eyes (crow's feet).

Fillers

Wrinkles that remain at rest may require filler to fill in or lift skin with deep wrinkles. Prominent folds around your mouth, nose and chin are the most commonly treated. Hyaluronic acid, a naturally occurring sugar polymer, is the most common filler.

Facelift

A facelift is a surgical procedure where your healthcare provider will remove excess skin and fat from your face and neck. Your provider will also tighten the muscular and connective tissue layers to reduce the appearance of wrinkles.

Who's a good candidate for wrinkle treatments?

Treatment isn’t necessary for wrinkles but it’s an option if you want to improve your appearance. Anyone who has wrinkles can get treatment if they choose to do so. The most common age group that seeks treatment to reduce wrinkles are people between the ages of 40 to 55.

You may choose treatment for wrinkles if you don’t like how they look on your skin. Treatment helps smooth your skin and lessens the appearance of wrinkles to give you a more youthful look.

How common are procedures to treat wrinkles?

Non-surgical procedures to treat wrinkles are common. More than 4 million wrinkle-relaxing treatment injections occurred in 2020.