Advances in aesthetic medicine bring new opportunities to patients unwilling or unable to ‘go under the knife’.

By Dr. Anushka Reddy

When cosmetic surgery is not an option or not yet called for, the new 3D vectoring technique offers medical practitioners and their patients an alternative to the traditional facelift, with remarkable results and surprising longevity.

In essence, 3D vectoring techniques use atraumatic cannulae to deliver dermal fillers, to volumise and lift areas where the gravitational signs of aging are most apparent. After initial facial mapping, to determine the feasibility of 3D vectoring and optimal sites for the placement of volume, the procedure itself takes just 30 to 40 minutes and results last between 18 and 24 months.

The 3D Vectoring Technique

Over time, anatomical and physiological changes result in visible signs of aging. Absolute skin laxity, which pertains to the quality of the skin itself, increases as aging and environmental damage cause a decrease in cutaneous collagen and elastin, resulting in a thinner, weaker dermis with a larger surface area. Simultaneously, an increase in relative skin laxity adds surplus skin by virtue of the loss of facial volume, due to depleting bone mass and the loss of facial fat.

The result of gravitational pull on devolumised facial tissue is that the face loses its youthful v-shape, where the chin is the vertex, transforming instead to an inverted v-shape, as the jowls sag and shift the vertex to the bridge of the nose.

The key difference between the outcomes of traditional surgical correction and 3D vectoring, both of which lift or correct skin superiorly and laterally, is the latter’s additional corrective dimension of ‘forward projection’. This 3D effect is the result of volumising with the use of dermal fillers.

By definition a vector describes both a magnitude and a direction and in 3D vectoring the negative vector (of sagging of skin tissue) is estimated and counterbalanced with a positive vector, created by the deliberate placement of dermal fillers.

To achieve this, the face is viewed in terms of three vertical sectors. Sector 1 is a narrow vertical band, extending from the chin over the nose and upward to the forehead. Sector 2 is a wider band, encompassing the mid-face, from the jaw-line where jowls form, over the eye and up to the hairline. Sector 3 is a narrow band, adjacent to sector two, extending upward from the upper jaw-line over the zygomatic and temporal bones to the hairline and outward to include the tragus.

Within the facial areas defined by these sectors, are key anatomical differences, with sectors 1 and 3 being the relatively fixed areas of the face and Sector 2 the most mobile. Sector 3 with its denser and less mobile fat serves as an anchoring point for the more mobile tissues and fat of sector 2 and is thus the main site for the careful placement of volume in 3D vectoring, to lift and hold the mobile tissue of sector 2 in a superior and lateral position. To lift the mid and lower face, volume is inserted subdermally in the temples, while dermal fillers are placed supraperiosteally along the zygomatic arches, resulting in the restoration of youthful contours.

In determining the positive vectors for the mid to lower face, the tissues that require lifting are identified by pulling the skin in Sector 3 at a superior, lateral point, perpendicular to the area that requires correction. If the pulling results in lifting of the desired tissue, then the vector has been correctly identified and is then marked in accordance with 3D vectoring protocol. Superior lateral volumisation is then achieved by inserting a band of dermal fillers in the fixed zone. This will serve to lift the tissues, while the high viscosity and elasticity of dermal fillers will hold and support them.

Of particular note is that as the dermal fillers are reabsorbed over time, collagen neogenesis is in fact stimulated, providing structure and firmness and improving the quality of the skin while continuing to lift tissues. , ,

Origin of 3D Vectoring

While dermal fillers and the concept of facial volumising are not new, the 3D vectoring technique is and has taken this branch of aesthetic medicine to a new level, with unprecedented results.

The technique was developed by Britain’s Dr Kate Goldie MBChB, Clinical Director of Medics Direct (Europe) Ltd and Clinical Director of Advanced Rejuvenation Clinic, Glasgow.

In South Africa, 3D Vector Lifts have been performed with great success by Medi-Sculpt Aesthetic Solutions and have become its signature product.

About Dr Anushka Reddy

Dr Anushka Reddy is the owner of Medi-Sculpt Aesthetic Solutions and President of the South African Association of Cosmetic Doctors (SAACD). She has trained extensively in advanced 3D vectoring technique under Dr Kate Goldie and is licensed to train medical practitioners in this as well as other aesthetic procedures.

Follow Dr Reddy on Facebook at www.facebook.com/medisculpt and on Twitter @drareddy for up-to-the-minute news on treatments, trends and tips or visit www.medisculpt.co.za or email info@medisculpt.co.za