Smoking cigarettes, drinking through a straw, chewing gum and even laughing will cause wrinkles around your mouth over time. Wrinkles form as repetitive motion breaks down collagen and elastin, which usually is more pronounced in women.
Why are women more prone than men to get wrinkles around the mouth? There are a few reasons:
- Women have fewer oil-producing sebaceous glands around the upper lip, meaning there is less oil to keep the skin soft and supple.
- Women (particularly postmenopausal women) have fewer blood vessels in the upper lip area, so there is less blood flow to the area.
- The muscles around the mouth are closer to the skin in women than they are in men, so the skin is pulled tighter, which leads to wrinkles.
The best ways to keep these fine lines at bay are by not smoking, avoiding repeated motions like pursing your lips, whistling and drinking from straws, using sunscreen year-round to avoid sun damage, and moisturizing and exfoliating your skin.
While you can minimize wrinkles around your mouth, you cannot totally avoid them. The good news is there are products and procedures that can help.
A combination of a high-quality peptide serum (DermaQuest’s Peptide Line Corrector), a series of peels (Enerpeel Lip & Eye Peel), SmartSkin Fractional CO2 laser, and/or injectable dermal fillers gives us a large arsenal to soften or eliminate the wrinkles around the mouth.