Prominent Nasolabial Fold: An Overview of Treatments

Lee, Sang Yeul

Abstract

One of the prominent signs of aging in the midface is deepening and lengthening of the nasolabial folds, which makes people look old and aesthetically unpleasing. There have been many treatment modalities to manage prominent nasolabial folds, but there is no single most effective one yet, because every method has its own efficacy and limitations. In order to select the optimal method to meet the desire of patient, several factors such as the age of the patient, his or her aesthetic needs, other aging stigmata, downtime and even economic status should be considered. In this article, treatment modalities are classified into three categories according to the extent of their invasiveness: minimally invasive, moderately invasive, and most invasive techniques. The purpose of this article is to review various methods currently used to manage prominent nasolabial folds, to describe the anatomic structures relevant to the fold formation and to help surgeons select the appropriate method for prominent folds.