Explore skin
Care starts with your skin, not a treatment name.
Explore injectables
A medical consultation and an individual approach.
Explore face & body
Explore options for contour, muscle and firmness.
Explore concerns
You do not need to know the treatment. Tell us your concern.
Explore skin
Care starts with your skin, not a treatment name.
Explore injectables
A medical consultation and an individual approach.
Explore face & body
Explore options for contour, muscle and firmness.
Explore concerns
You do not need to know the treatment. Tell us your concern.
A friend asks if you are tired when you feel perfectly well. The lines from nose to mouth and mouth to chin are shadows cast by tissue that has descended, and restoring the support above them, planned at Wimpole Street, brings back a fresher, happier resting face.
Nasolabial folds run from the sides of the nose to the corners of the mouth. Marionette lines run from the mouth corners down toward the jaw. Both deepen from the mid thirties and both make a resting face look tired or unhappy.
Almost everyone who books for these asks to have the line filled, and the lovely surprise is that the best answer usually sits elsewhere. Neither is primarily a line. Both are shadows cast by an edge, and the edge exists because tissue above has descended.
The cheek deflates. What was resting on it slides downward and stacks against the fixed ligaments around the nose and mouth. The fold is where the sliding tissue meets tissue that did not move. Lifting that sliding tissue back where it belongs keeps the area around the mouth light and natural.
Restore the cheek and the fold softens without anything being injected into it. Regents Park Aesthetics assesses the whole face before treating either, and frequently treats somewhere other than the area the patient pointed at.
Flat cheeks, deep nose-to-mouth line
The most common pattern. Bring an old photograph: if your cheeks were fuller a decade ago, this is your cause. Treating the cheek lifts the tissue and softens the fold, keeping the lower face light.
Mouth corner down toward the jaw
Volume loss combined with the downward pull of the depressor muscles at the mouth corner. Frequently needs both: filler to restore support and a small amount of anti-wrinkle treatment to release the pull.
Etched line visible at rest
Where the fold has been present long enough to crease the skin itself, a shadow becomes a line. Restoring volume improves it and the etched crease needs resurfacing or skin treatment alongside.
Folds plus jowls plus a soft jawline
Where folds appear alongside jowling and a loss of jaw definition, the whole mid face has descended. Lifting and volume together refresh the whole lower face at once.
Assessment at Regents Park Aesthetics is done sitting upright, because lying a patient back lifts the mid face and hides exactly the descent we are assessing.
We ask for a photograph from ten to fifteen years ago, and it is the most useful thing in the room. It shows whether the cheeks have deflated, which decides whether this is a volume problem presenting as a line problem.
We look at the fold at rest and smiling. A fold that deepens dramatically on smiling has a strong dynamic component. A fold that is etched at rest has a skin component, so skin treatment joins the plan.
Where the mid face has lost volume, your clinician will often suggest starting at the cheek rather than the fold, because that is what gives the light, lifted result patients love.
As a guide, this is how we typically match each type to a treatment. Your own plan is always confirmed at consultation, and where a specialist would serve you better, your clinician refers you.
| Cheek Filler The treatment that addresses the cause. Structural filler placed on bone at the cheekbone restores mid-face support and lifts the tissue that has slid down, softening the fold with | Sculptra For broad volume loss where filler would need several syringes. Stimulates your own collagen over months, so the change is gradual and nobody registers it as an event. Lasts up to | Dermal Filler to the Fold Appropriate in small amounts once the mid face has been supported, or where volume loss is minimal and the fold is genuinely the whole problem. Used conservatively and rarely as th | Ultraformer III HIFU Where the folds come with jowling and general descent, lifting the whole mid face does more than treating individual folds. One session, minimal downtime, results at three months. From | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| £400 | £600 | £350 | £450 | |
| Cause, mid-face support | Cause, gradual collagen | Symptom, the fold itself | Descent and laxity | |
| Immediate | 6 weeks to 6 months | Immediate | 6 weeks to 3 months | |
| 12 to 18 months | Up to 2 years | 6 to 12 months | 12 to 18 months | |
| Low, if placed correctly | Low | Real, if overdone | None | |
| Explore Cheek Filler | Explore Sculptra | Explore Dermal Filler to the Fold | Explore Ultraformer III HIFU |
Collagen stimulation rebuilding support around the fold. Clinical image supplied by Galderma. Individual results may vary.
The same approach in more established volume loss. Clinical image supplied by Galderma. Individual results may vary.
Gradual change over a course rather than an immediate fill. Clinical image supplied by Galderma. Individual results may vary.
The folds are structural and the mechanism is deep, so home care looks after the skin while clinic treatment restores the support.
Retinoids used consistently over years improve skin thickness and quality, which softens an etched line. Daily SPF slows the collagen loss driving the descent, so it is excellent prevention.
Sleeping on your back rather than your side reduces the compression that deepens one fold more than the other over decades. Most people who notice their folds are asymmetric are side sleepers, so it is a useful habit to know about.
Lifting a descended fat pad and restoring mid-face volume happens in clinic, so spend your skincare budget on sunscreen and a retinoid and let treatment do the lifting.
Mid-face volume loss, laxity in the retaining ligaments, and downward descent of the facial fat pads. The fold is where sliding tissue meets tissue anchored by ligament. Genetics sets the timing and sun exposure accelerates it.
Usually the cheek comes first. Restoring cheek support lifts the tissue and softens the fold without anything going into it.
Usually a combination. Filler restores mid-face and jawline support. A small amount of anti-wrinkle treatment releases the downward pull at the mouth corners.
Cheek filler £400 for 1ml, Sculptra £600 per vial, fold filler from £350, HIFU from £450. Most plans combine two approaches and we quote the plan.
Twelve to eighteen months for filler, up to two years for Sculptra, twelve to eighteen months for HIFU. Ageing continues underneath, so these are maintenance treatments.
By treating the cause. Restoring support at the cheek lifts the fold, so the area around the mouth stays light, fresh and entirely you.
They tone muscle, while the structures that change are fat pads and ligaments, neither of which is trainable, and building the wrong muscle can make the lower face look heavier.
With marionette lines, by releasing the downward pull at the mouth corners. Nasolabial folds are about volume, so filler or Sculptra leads there.
Most faces are asymmetric to begin with, and side sleeping compresses one side over decades. It is extremely common and worth pointing out at consultation so treatment is balanced rather than mirrored.
Thread lifts give a shorter-lived lift than most patients expect, so Regents Park Aesthetics lifts with Ultraformer HIFU, or refers to a surgeon where that serves you better.
EmFace gives a gentle, needle-free lift that suits early change beautifully. Where folds are established, volume is what is missing, and an injectable restores it.
A medically led clinic where every plan starts with an assessment and every injectable is placed by a medical professional, so the result looks like you on your best day.
Tell us what you’d like to achieve. Regents Park Aesthetics will be in touch within one working day to arrange your consultation.
