Sooner or later all of us develop wrinkles, skin creases and folds. They represent a natural feature of our skin, which is due to the underlying muscular activity and might be more pronounced in certain individuals than in others. Though they might never completely disappear it nowadays is an option to efficiently treat these skin changes. More and more younger patients and not only patients with ageing skin ask for collagen therapy.

Indication
Marked nasolabial folds, wrinkles of the upper lip, frown and worry lines, "crow's feet", lip augmentation (enhancement of lip contours or in order to give more volume to the lips). It is possible and sometimes even recommended to combine collagen treatment with a facelift, a blepharoplasty or the augmentation of a deep scar.

Treatment
The surgeon applies the chosen collagen (Zyderm® or Zyplast®) with a microcannula to the appropriate area. The injection of the collagen is not totally painfree but the application of cool-packs and EMLA®-Cream to numb skin minimize the resulting sensation.
Collagen application as such is no complicated procedure, but the specific experience of the surgeon is very important. Together with the patient should the surgeon design a treatment-plan, which must consider not only the patient's desires but also the individual circumstances and factors like type of skin a.s.f.

Allergy Test
To safely exclude unwanted allergic reactions to the implant it is essential to apply a small dose of collagen 4 weeks prior to the treatment into the forearm. Nevertheless, allergic reactions are almost never seen.

Results
Collagen treatment allows immediate inspection of the results. Wrinkles are less deep or even level, contours are more pronounced and lips appear fuller. The treatment intervals are determined by the depth of the wrinkles and the patients wishes.

After the treatment
In the first 2 hours after the application of the collagen the use of make-up should be refrained from to prevent contamination of the injection sites.