The French author Marcel Proust said, “the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

It is a well-known fact that youthful faces have light and shadows all in just the right places.

Facial shadows are not simply dark areas that border the light. These shadows are as important as the light in giving life to the face. It is the facial shadows that shape the light and focus our attention on the light. For example, talented makeup artists understand that you cannot have shadows without light, and you cannot have facial highlights without shadows. Photography is indeed the language of light and shadows, and in fact, photography literally means “writing with light.”

To create an outstanding aesthetic outcome, you should look beyond facial highlights and focus on facial shadows.

The use of an aesthetic blueprint for treating the cheek and other key facial areas creates a better balance between light and shadows. Phi calipers can be utilized in designing this blueprint.

Innovative facial syringe therapy with hyaluronic acid (HA) fillers and neuromodulators aims to recreate facial highlights by facial contouring and lifting areas of deflation. This is essentially a form of biomimicry – trying to mimic what the patient once looked like.

Teach aesthetic patients that getting older is not optional but looking older is. Facial restoration and maintenance are choices, but doing nothing is also a choice. Some patients say, “I just want to grow old gracefully.” Maturing gracefully means that you make a choice to look age-appropriate, and with careful maintenance, you will start receiving increasing comments from those who have chosen to do nothing. These comments are usually along the lines of “you always look just the same.”

Understanding light and shadows as part of the facial restoration process goes a long way to creating a look patients will love.