Smile Lines: What Causes Them And How To Treat Them

Of all the cruel jokes our bodies play on us, smile lines may be at the top of the list. The act of smiling makes you feel good. It can reduce stress, calm nervous energy, and lift a bad mood. That’s a lot for a facial expression.

And it doesn’t just stop with you. A simple smile goes a long way toward making others feel good as well.

But all that smiling you’re doing, it’s a repetitive movement. And like all repetitive movements, it can lead to creases and small wrinkles known as smile lines.

It really is unfortunate that something so good (a smile) can lead to something so bad (wrinkles).

There’s no need to worry about smile lines, though, because there are some very simple ways to treat these pesky little folds.

In this article, SiO Beauty will outline a few of the easier at-home remedies for wrinkled skin. We’ll also let you in on the secret to fast, visible, lasting results.

Before we do that, we’ll show you where smile lines are and what causes wrinkles and smile lines so you can understand how the best treatment works.

What Are Smile Lines?

Wrinkles come in all shapes and sizes, and there are different types of wrinkles. If you don’t know exactly what smile lines are or where they appear, you might be wondering if you actually have them or if it’s some other type of wrinkle appearing on your face.

Smile lines are just like they sound — lines and wrinkles that appear around or near your mouth when you smile. But everyone has their own unique smile, so these wrinkles can appear in a couple of different places depending on your particular facial expressions.

For some women, smile lines only form on the sides of the mouth, but you might also notice them around your eyes. And if you crinkle your nose when you laugh, you may even have something called “bunny lines.”

Now that you know where smile lines are, let’s get straight to their causes so you can get down to business and do away with those pesky wrinkles!

What Causes Smile Lines?

Smile lines result from a number of causes:

• Age
• Ultraviolet (UV) light exposure
• Smoking
• Repeated facial expressions.
• Too little sleep.
• The wrong sleep position.
• Stress

All of these factors contribute to the production of small creases around the mouth, but one is more responsible than the others: repeated facial expressions. Let’s look at the others first before we deal directly with the real culprit.

Age

Despite our best attempts to push back the clock, age affects us all. It serves to hasten the breakdown of collagen and elastin deep within your skin. These proteins provide support to the layers of skin that lie on top of them.

Essentially, they’re pushing out from underneath to keep your skin soft and smooth. When they break down, your skin begins to sag inward. This sagging leads to wrinkles, lines, and creases.

Unless you’ve discovered the fountain of youth, there’s not much you can do to avoid the natural aging (and collagen loss) of your skin. But there are certain habits that speed up the aging process — avoid those and you’ll be one step closer to younger-looking skin!

Hanging onto the collagen you have and boosting new collagen production are both super important when it comes to preventing and treating smile lines and other wrinkles.

Keep collagen in mind, because it’s so important that we’ll mention it again.

UV Light

Ultraviolet light — think sunlight — contributes to smile lines and wrinkles. Just like aging, ultraviolet light breaks down collagen and elastin in your skin, leading to premature wrinkles. Exposure to too much sun basically speeds up the process of aging.

Smoking

Smoking is one of the worst things you can do to your skin because it actually damages collagen. That’s exactly what you don’t want if you’re trying to prevent and treat smile lines.

The myriad of toxic chemicals contained in the smoke from cigarettes, pipes, and other methods of smoking, are concentrated around the mouth. These toxic chemicals do more damage than even the most intense UV light and lead to major wrinkles and smile lines.

And then there’s the simple act of puckering your lips over and over again when you’re smoking. That repetitive movement leads to little lines around your mouth called “smoker’s lines.”

That leads us to the most common cause of smile lines.

Repeated Facial Expressions

Every time you use a facial muscle to squint, raise your eyebrows, frown, and, yes, smile, a microscopic groove forms beneath the surface of the skin. With repeated movement, that groove gets deeper and more pronounced.

The lines that form are called expression lines. Wrinkles such as crows feet and forehead wrinkles are expression lines. So are smile lines.

Add an expressive face to the combined effects of age and UV light, which serve to destroy your skin’s ability to return to its normal positions, and you can quickly see why repeated facial expressions are so bad for your skin.

Too Little Sleep

The amount of sleep you get every night directly affects the wrinkles and smile lines that form on your skin. If you get too little sleep, your body produces cortisol. This hormone breaks down the connections between cells and results in sagging skin and fine lines.

On the other hand, when you get enough sleep, your body produces growth hormones that strengthen the bonds between the cells in your skin. This results in tighter, smoother, younger-looking skin.

So the next time you want to stay up late binge-watching your favorite show, remember why it’s called “beauty sleep” and head to bed.

Expert tip: Get the most out of your beauty sleep by using SiO Beauty patches!

All you have to do is put the patches on your skin before going to bed and they get straight to work reducing the visibility of your wrinkles!

These hydrating patches encourage collagen production and smooth and fill your skin, leaving you with a glowing, more youthful-looking face in the morning. When you wake up, simply peel the patches off and put them back where they came from to use again the following night.

You can also wear SiO patches for a couple hours during the day if your skin needs a boost before a big event!

The Wrong Sleep Position

Your sleep position plays just as much of a role when it comes to smile lines as the amount of sleep you get.

When you sleep on your side or your stomach, your pillowcase and bottom sheet push and pull your delicate skin. This friction causes microscopic folds to form deep inside your dermis.

Over time, those tiny folds get deeper and more pronounced — until you wake up one morning and the wrinkles don’t go away.

Stress

Remember that hormone, cortisol, that your body produces when you don’t get enough sleep? It’s also released when you’re under stress. In addition to breaking down cell bonds, cortisol accelerates the production of free radicals.

These molecules wreak havoc on your skin by preventing your body from producing collagen and elastin. And if that wasn’t bad enough, free radicals also destroy the existing collagen and elastin that give your skin the support it needs to stay smooth and wrinkle-free.

So is there nothing we can do to fight back against smile lines? Should you do your best not to smile ever again?

Are you just to go through life ignoring the wrinkles that form around your mouth when you do smile? No, no, no!

Here’s what you can do to both prevent and treat stubborn smile lines.

At-Home Remedies For Smile Lines

You don’t have to resort to painful and expensive surgeries and injections to get rid of those tiny lines around your mouth and eyes. A few at-home remedies will do the trick.

Quit Smoking

We’ve already explained the extensive damage that smoking can cause to the skin around your mouth (not to mention the skin on the rest of your face). There really is no good that comes from smoking.

Avoid smoker’s lines and collagen damage — and show your skin some TLC — by quitting smoking as soon as possible!

Drink 8 Cups Of Water Every Day

The water you drink provides the majority of the moisture your skin needs to stay soft, smooth, and wrinkle-free. Unfortunately, your skin is often the last organ to receive hydration from the water you take in.

That’s why it’s so important to drink enough water so your skin gets its fair share.

We recommend drinking eight cups of water every day. Does eight cups seem like a difficult number to achieve? It doesn’t have to be.

Here’s a simple way to do it:

1. Drink two cups at breakfast.
2. Drink two cups at lunch.
3. Drink two cups at dinner.
4. Sip on another two cups from a water bottle between meals.

It’s just that easy and your skin will thank you.

SiO Beauty patches are another way to hydrate well from the inside-out.

The patches create a special micro-climate on your skin called an occlusion. That allows moisture to be drawn up from the lower layer of your skin to the outer layer, the dermis, plumping and filling your skin.

That plumping reduces wrinkle depth and increases hydration — exactly what your skin craves!

Apply Sunscreen Every Day

One of the best things you can do to prevent and treat smile lines, is to protect the delicate skin around your mouth with sunscreen.

Blocking the sun’s harmful rays with sunscreen prevents free radicals from doing damage to the important support structures in the lower layers of skin. That keeps collagen healthy and strong for longer.

Apply an SPF 30 or 45 sunscreen before leaving the house and every two hours thereafter. Oh, and don’t blow all your hard-earned money on super-high-SPF sunscreens (like 90 or 100). SPF 30 protects against 97% of the sun’s UV rays while SPF 45 protects against 98%.

No sunscreen protects against 100% and numbers over 45 don’t do any more appreciable good.

While sunscreen is a must, there are other great (and fashionable!) ways to protect your skin from the sun. Wearing hats and sunglasses are two easy ways to give your face the sun-protection that it needs.

Hats provide shade for your whole face, protecting you from the damaging rays of the sun. And sunglasses prevent wrinkles in two ways.

First, sunglasses directly protect the skin around your eyes, preventing sun damage. Second, sunglasses keep you from squinting your eyes in the bright sun.

What does that have to do with preventing wrinkles? If you spend day after day squinting your eyes, expression lines aren’t far behind.

Eat Healthy Foods

 Like the water you drink, the foods that you eat provide a lot of benefits to your skin. Your skin needs lots of vitamins and minerals to function properly, and those vitamins and minerals come from foods like:

• Fruits like berries, apples, and grapes
• Vegetables like broccoli, carrots, and spinach
• Proteins like chicken, beef, and fish
• Healthy fats like nuts, seeds, and olive oil

You’ll notice that foods like chips, soda, and candy aren’t on that list. That’s because processed foods like these can actually do more harm than good.

Do your best to replace processed foods with the options above and your skin will be healthier for it.

Sleep 6-8 Hours Every Night

It’s been said that the most important item in your makeup bag is a good night’s sleep. We couldn’t agree more.

That’s why we recommend sleeping six to eight hours every night. Doing so gives your body the time it needs to repair, refresh, and renew your skin so that smile lines don’t appear before their time.

Having trouble winding down after a hard-day’s work to get to sleep before midnight? Try these simple remedies:

• Keep the temperature inside between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Turn off electronics one hour before bed.
• Make your room as dark as possible.
• Take a hot shower before bed.
• Wear earplugs.
• Wear a silk sleep mask.
• Practice deep breathing while lying in bed.
• Invest in a quality mattress.

Unfortunately, smile-line prevention doesn’t end with the amount of sleep you get each night. You also need to pay attention to your sleep position.

We suggest sleeping on your back as much as possible. This prevents your pillowcase and sheets from contributing to smile lines.

But if you tend to toss and turn at night, you probably can’t control your sleep position. That’s OK! Just switch out your cotton sheets for silk or satin.

These fabrics are much smoother than regular sheets. They allow your skin to slide over the surface, rather than being pushed and pulled out of position. That means you can sleep on your side without worrying about smile lines in the morning.

And if the price tag for a full set of silk sheets has you thinking twice, opt for just the pillowcase.

Relax & Reduce Stress

Constant stress can have very real physical effects on your skin — smile lines are only one of those problems. But you can relax and reduce stress (and help prevent smile lines in the process) by applying these five simple tips to your daily routine.

1) Exercise

Exercise signals your body to produce endorphins, which can lower your blood pressure, boost your mood, and yes, contribute to your skin’s health.

2) Meditate

Relax your mind and your body at the same time through a combination of inward-focused thought and deep breathing.

3) Stay Positive

It may sound cliche, but thinking positive thoughts can actually affect your mood, reduce stress, and help you relax.

4) Unplug

It seems like bad news is all around us these days. Now, more than ever, it’s critical to unplug from your TV, your computer, and your mobile device.

Even if it’s only for 10 or 15 minutes, the time away from the world can do your body good.

5) Go To Bed And Wake Up At The Same Time

Going to bed and waking up at the same time every day will help your body get into a rhythm. When bedtime rolls around, your body will be ready and you’ll be more likely to get those eight hours of sleep that you need!

6) Take The Edge Off

Stress can be overwhelming at times, so it’s vital to find activities that take the edge off. These activities will vary from person to person, but might include:

• Taking a warm bath.
• Going for a walk.
• Listening to music.
• Spending time on your favorite hobby.

Whatever activity you choose, it should be a break from the regular stressors of your life.

Apply A Good Serum

A good wrinkle-fighting serum goes a long way toward reducing and preventing the fine lines that are caused by repetitive movements like smiling.

Did you know that there’s a difference between moisturizing and hydrating? Basically, hydrating is inside and moisturizing is outside.

Hydration means skin cells are hydrated from the inside with plenty of water. Moisturization means providing your skin with the right protective barrier on the surface (think creams and moisturizers), which keeps all that hydration from escaping.

Keeping your skin hydrated and moisturized is essential to healthy, smooth skin. While the water you drink and the food you eat provide moisture and nutrients to your skin from the inside, a good moisturizing serum provides these same things to your skin from the outside.

Used together, water, diet, and serum literally surround your skin with the stuff it needs to stay smooth, supple, and smile-line-free regardless of your age.

As good as these do-it-yourself remedies are, there’s an even better treatment available to prevent and heal smile lines. What is that treatment? Silicone patches.

Silicone Smile Patches: The Best Way To Treat Smile Lines

Silicone patches got their start in the medical community as a noninvasive way to treat serious skin damage like burns and lacerations.

Silicone patches were so effective at healing these nasty blemishes, that their use quickly spread to the treatment of other, less-damaging skin conditions like wrinkles.

We took the same science used in hospitals and applied it to the task of healing smile lines. SiO Beauty’s Smile & Eye Lift silicone patches are designed to be worn at night to provide deep hydration to the delicate skin around your mouth to help firm, fill and erase the look of smile lines.

But we didn’t just stop with stubborn smile lines. You can also harness the power of silicone to heal and rejuvenate other areas beyond your smile. We’ve created specially-designed silicone patches for your:

• Brow
• Neck
• Face
• Décolleté

Each silicone patch is reusable up to fifteen times and provides targeted results overnight for the delicate skin on your face, neck, and chest.

Best of all, you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg — the reusable patches are priced comparably to the less-effective, one time use Korean face masks that are all the rage these days.

With skin-healthy habits like drinking plenty of water and using a serum plus SiO Beauty’s line of overnight wrinkle-smoothing products, you can smile all you want without the risk of smile lines. If that doesn’t make you smile, we don’t know what will.