Plastic Surgeons Rate Aging of Skin

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What would you think if a plastic surgeon examined the wrinkles on your face, called his colleague for a consultation and said:

“She’s got a Merz scale 3 on the crow’s feet, about a 4 on the hands while the lips are a 0 but the forehead is very close to a full 4″?

Your plastic surgeon would be using the new language that ranks the aging process of human skin on a scale from 0 to 4.

Known as the Merz scale, it doesn’t really diagnosis or treat anything. The idea is to just rank hands, crow’s feet, foreheads, lips and Marionette Lines according to the amount of wrinkling or aging in the skin.

Marionette Lines, also known as “drool lines,” are the facial creases that run from the corners of the mouth down toward the chin.

Deeper marionette lines are usually associated with more advanced aging. Facial fillers like Juvederm or Restylane are often used to plump up those lines, perform lip augmentation  and smooth crow’s feet.

The scale was developed by nine experts from dermatology, ophthalmology, plastic surgery and dermatologic surgery and announced recently at the annual meeting of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

They came up with the scale by studying photos of aging patient and pinpointing the conditions when skin conditions change.

So a typical grading for lines on, say, a forehead would be:

• 0 -no wrinkles
• 1-wrinkles present at rest but fine lines with facial expression
• 2 -fine lines at rest and deep lines with facial expression
• 3 – fine lines present at rest and deep lines with facial expression
• 4-deeper wrinkles at rest and deeper furrows with facial expression

(Botox or a brow lift is often used to treat an aging forehead.)

The scale is being expanded to include measurements of the glabellar lines–the area between your eyes, also known as “the 11s” — along with:

• Nasolabial folds – the lines that run from the side of the nose to the edge of the mouth
• Décolletage – the cleavage area revealed by a low-cut neckline
• Facial volume loss

admin @ July 14, 2009