Changes in the normal skin texture of your facial skin are easily noticeable. Nose wrinkles, even though they seem shorter in length, are a serious concern. While you can consider fine lines in your nose as a common problem or try some serums and conditioners, it is essential to know more about nose wrinkles, and their causes, and learn how to prevent them.
Nose Wrinkles: What Are They?
Nose wrinkles are tiny-sized transverse or diagonal lines that occur on both sides of the nose, under the bridge of the nose, or sometimes above the nose bridge. Wrinkles over the nose begin at the inner corner of the eye area and slowly descend along the nose inwardly.
When we laugh or smile, unavoidably we crinkle our nose. This makes them more noticeable. In fact, they are pronounced when you smile or laugh than when your facial muscles are at rest.
The usual type of nose wrinkle is commonly called “bunny lines.” When you scrunch up your nose, it gives an appearance of a bunny (ie., a young rabbit) lifting his nose, hence the name.
Depending on one’s individual facial anatomy, muscle movement, and genetics, the appearance of nose wrinkles could be diversely shaped.
Commonly, there are three types: Horizontal radix lines, side wall scrunch wrinkles (which are vertical), and the more common “bunny lines” (which are oblique).
Nose Wrinkles: What Causes Bunny Lines On Nose?
Have you been puzzled as to why my nose looks wrinkly and what causes them?
Bunny lines are basically “expression lines.” You express a wide range of emotions through your face. In the process, a lot of muscles coordinate to move to produce the desired effect. Your skin moves along with your muscles when they expand and contract.
The ability of your skin to move along with the muscles during an action declines due to aging, trauma, underlying serious health conditions, side effects of therapies, etc.
Like the fine creases formed in fabrics due to repetitive folding, repeated and close muscle movements in an area can form creases of varying dimensions.
Anatomically speaking, the constant contracting of the transverse and alar parts of the nasalis muscle along with the procerus muscle and levator labii superioris alaeque nasi muscle, results in the formation of smaller skin lines.
When these muscles are rigorously used again and again in an uneven manner, they are put to overwork. This results in these fine creases that may develop further in length. The following four reasons are usually attributed to wrinkles over the nose.
- Scrunching: Unavoidably, you crinkle your nose while smiling or laughing. Due to aging, your skin loses its elasticity. It cannot return to its original position very quickly. Because of this, these lines tend to stay for a longer duration without contracting.
- Botox: The other reason is too much of Botox injections administered between one’s eyebrows or overall facial area.
- Sun Damage: Over-exposure to the sun could damage elastin fibers and loss of collagen and fat in the skin resulting in fine nose wrinkles.
- Sudden Weight Change: In some cases, rapid weight increase or unexplained weight loss has been found to cause nose wrinkles.
How To Prevent Nose Wrinkles?
Since scrunching the nose leads to nose wrinkles, the easiest way to prevent nose wrinkles is by avoiding scrunching which, in reality, is not possible.
Here are some overall general skin protection techniques that will improve your overall skin tone in the face, especially in the nose.
1. UV Shield: When your facial skin is exposed to ultraviolet radiation due to sunlight, it prompts free radical formation. This results in wrinkling.
To prevent this, apply sunscreen on a daily basis. Your dermatologist can prescribe a suitable prescription.
2. Quit Smoking: Apart from severe respiratory complications, smoking could lead to loss of overall facial skin firmness and diminishment of nose skin tone. This also results in nose wrinkles.
Therefore, for healthy well-being, relinquish smoking.
3. Quit Alcoholism: Excess liquor consumption gradually affects your liver. In turn, fat muscles are very slowly depleted. This leads to hanging skin and wrinkles all over the face, especially around the nose.
4. Facial Exercises: Simple DIY massaging techniques have worked well to reduce the number of fine wrinkles in and around the nose. Learn them from experienced experts and perform them daily.
5. Anti-aging Regimen: If you are approaching middle age, nose wrinkles may start to appear. Seek a dermatologist’s help for anti-aging skincare products that can prevent nose wrinkle formation.
6. Retinol Serums: These are available as OTC products and prescription dosages. When applied on both sides of the nose, it can decrease the number of fine lines on the nose.
7. Anti-Wrinkle Nose Pads: Patches that are skin-friendly and that can stick to the nose without causing allergies can be used. They can relax the facial muscles naturally.
8. Healthy Food: A balanced diet rich in vitamins and micronutrients can help your skin stay alive and wrinkle-free.
9. Using Standard Skin Products: Low-grade skin products can cause premature aging. This can make nose wrinkles more prominent.
10. Nose Massaging: Before the onset of wrinkles over your nose, you can use items in your kitchen to do wonders to stop them from occurring. Taking care not to touch the hairy areas on your face, apply them periodically. These include coconut oil, egg whites, aloe vera extract, cucumber juice, diluted lemon juice, honey, and almond oil.
How To Get Rid Of Nose Wrinkles?
Bunny lines can show up around the nose, under the nose, above the nose, and even on the sides of the nose.
While the above-outlined methods can prevent the occurrence of bunny lines, once they break out, the sureshot way to treat bunny lines is with Botox injection.
Injecting Botox on either side of the nose can smooth out these wrinkles. This results in slowing the movements of skin muscles that clump together that generate these creases.
However, it should be done in the hands of an able specialist as overdoing it can result in the freezing of muscles and give a “frozen face” look.
Nose Wrinkles: Botox Treatment
The common Botox brand names include Botox Cosmetic, Xeomin, Dysport, and Jeuveau.
Botox Injection – Mechanism Of Action
They all have the same action mechanism. They block the signals that can cause the facial muscles to contract. When botulinum toxin A (or Botox) is injected into targeted areas in the face, it relaxes the muscles there. This results in more agile facial muscles at the specific injection site.
Botox Injection – Cost And Duration
Nose wrinkle treatment with Botox involves injecting Botox into a smaller area. When compared to standard Botox treatments in other facial areas, the quantity of Botox required would be less due to the smaller zone of treatment. Therefore, the cost ranges from &200 to &400 per session.
The duration of the treatment would be for around 15 minutes.
Botox Injection – A Word Of Caution
Your nose is an important structure in the respiratory anatomy. It also plays a vital role in smell detection. It involves a lot of complex neuro-muscular connections.
Administering Botox should be done with adequate care. If not, diplopia (or double vision) could be a potential side effect. There have been some side effects reported about some patients developing samurai eyebrows and ptosis (or drooping eyelids).
Hence, the injection should be performed gently, slowly, and cautiously without damaging the underlying eye muscles.
Summary
Nose wrinkles are not harmful either to the skin or your overall well-being. You can leave them untouched and still stay healthy.
However, for aesthetic purposes, if you wish to get them removed, try the simple methods as sketched above, under an able dermatologist’s guidance.
If you are dissatisfied with the results, Botox injection is a good and tested solution. Even after the injection treatment, compliance with post-procedural instructions can help achieve your cosmetic goal.
Nevertheless, too much Botox in itself can cause harm, and hence treatment for bunny lines should be handled by an experienced injector only.
The next level of treatment if Botox fails involves cosmetic clinical-grade skincare or skin resurfacing by a well-trained cosmetic surgeon.
FAQs
Q. Are bunny lines genetic?
A. Yes, to some extent. You may be more susceptible to developing nose wrinkles if your parents had it. However, they depend mainly on your emotional quotient, ie., how far you contort or distort your facial muscles unknowingly when reacting to emotional situations.
Q. Botox For Nose Wrinkles – Is It The Best Option?
A. Skincare products or topical treatments cannot be as effective as Botox. Nose wrinkles do not go away easily with topicals or other creams. The efficacy of Botox has been proven, plus the reappearance of nose wrinkles is minimal.
Q. How long does it take for Botox to work on the nose?
A. In a span of seven days after injection, you can expect a good outcome.
Q. How long does Botox on the nose last?
A. They usually last for around 3 to 6 months. Further need for injections would be ascertained by your cosmetologist.
Q. Are there any other surgical options to treat nose wrinkles?
A. High-intensity focused ultrasound is a minimally invasive option for facial wrinkles. However, nose wrinkles per se, are gotten rid of successfully with Botox in specified intervals of time and other lifestyle changes adaptation.
