Deep smile lines are one of the most noticeable features related to aging. They're actually your nasolabial folds, and everyone has them. However, they become more prominent as your body stops producing as much collagen and they lose their fullness. Thankfully, cosmetic injection procedures can be used to quickly eliminate them, and results are long-lasting. To learn more about how you can get rid of your smile lines with cosmetic injections, read on to learn more about where smile lines come from and how injections using dermal fillers can make them less visible.

What Causes Deep Smile Lines?

Deep smile lines are primarily caused by changes related to aging. As people get older, they stop producing as much collagen in their skin. The collagen matrix helps to provide structure and support. Without it, their skin becomes loose.

Smile lines are more pronounced when you're smiling because it's sandwiched between the large fat pad in the cheek and the very thin layer of fat on the upper lip. Without enough collagen to give it support, the loose skin is drawn up while smiling and then pushed underneath the cheek fat pad.

Muscle tension plays a role as well, and this tends to increase as people age. When people are paralyzed on one side of their face, the smile line often disappears from the affected side but remains present on the other.

How Do You Eliminate Deep Smile Lines?

Cosmetic injection procedures are the best way to treat deep smile lines. Unfortunately, topical cosmetic products tend to be ineffective — the skin is designed to act as a barrier to prevent things from entering your body, so the products don't penetrate deeply enough to affect wrinkles. Injections can place dermal fillers deep into the skin where they'll be the most effective.

There are a few cosmetic injection procedures using dermal fillers available for treating deep smile lines. Collagen was the first dermal filler used to treat smile lines since it directly restores the collagen that is lost due to aging. Collagen dermal injections give great results, but they don't last very long — the excess collagen is very quickly absorbed by the body. As a result, collagen injections need to be repeated about every three months.

Hyaluronic acid is another option for dermal injections. It's found naturally in connective tissue, so it helps add support to the skin's collagen matrix. In addition, hyaluronic acid can also absorb massive amounts of water, which helps add volume to the dermal filler. It breaks down slower than collagen, so treatments can last for up to 12 months before they need to be repeated.

Another dermal filler that can be used to eliminate smile lines is calcium hydroxylapatite. This is another natural compound, although it's found in your bones and teeth instead of in your connective tissue. It's absorbed very slowly, so results can last for over two years.

One downside of calcium hydroxylapatite is that it's usually done in multiple procedures spread over a period of months. Since it lasts so long, extra care is taken to add small amounts of dermal filler so that the smile lines don't accidentally have too much volume. This makes calcium hydroxylapatite one of the more expensive options.

Overall, cosmetic injection procedures are one of the best ways to eliminate smile lines. They all work in essentially the same way — they add structure and support deep in the skin in order to reduce the prominence of smile lines. The best compound to choose for your dermal filler depends on price and how often you wish to have the procedure repeated. For most people, hyaluronic acid will have the best ratio between cost and frequency of appointments.

If you want to eliminate your smile lines and help restore your youthful appearance, schedule an appointment with a clinic that offers cosmetic injection procedures. They'll go into more detail about all of the options available to you along with their cost.