The photo above is a typical example of a patient who comes in for a facelift. Usually the complaints are:
1 – Neck laxity and bands
2 – Prominent nasolabial folds
A lower facelift is the best option for the neck. Non-surgical options like accent and sciton st are skin tightening devices that work for mild laxity but will not correct the bands or folds as seen above. Ina facelift (see facelift section) – the muscles of the neck and cheek are tightened along with the skin as seen in the after photo.
 The patient above also needs a facelift as there is:
1 – Excess skin of face and neck
2 – Excess fat of the neck
3 – Jowls
In this case we had to also perform a deep neck or cervicoplasty which implies removing fat (and sometimes the submandibular glands) under the neck muscles as well as tightening the muscles and removing excess skin.
Procedure overview 
Face Lift, properly called rhytidectomy by medical professionals, is used to return the facial skin, muscle and underlying tissues to a more youthful contour for cosmetic reasons. A facelift will not stop the aging process but it will deter and offset some of its effects. It’s a wonderful way to offer patients a solution to the effects of heredity, sun exposure, environmental issues and a past history of smoking. A good facelift can take a decade off your face.
If you’re considering a face lift, it’s important to understand that the texture of your skin will not be modified by the face lift procedure. Skin conditions such as wrinkles, acne scars, age spots or smoker’s creases around the lips will quickly return no matter how firmly the skin is pulled during the face lift. This being the case, we recommend laser skin resurfacing before or in conjunction with a face lift procedure to improve the texture of the skin and to minimize the recurrence of wrinkles, age spots, etc. Additional post-face lift procedures may be needed, such as chemical or laser resurfacing, along with Botox and filler injections to help treat laugh lines, wrinkles or furrows that are not relieved by the face lift procedure. Fat grafting is often combined with a face lift to help recontour the face and to help rejuvenate the skin through adipose derived stem cells. This will be discussed in your consultation. Rest assured, we have done thousands of face lifts, and know how to create the most attractive result for your particular needs.
Good candidates
 A face and/or neck lift is needed when injectable fillers no longer give the results that you seek. Generally, this is after the age of 40, but younger patients with a pronounced aging pattern may elect to have this procedure earlier in life. If you are physically healthy, psychologically stable, and have realistic expectations, you will be a good candidate. Depending upon your age and needs, either a midface or a full face lift will be recommended.
There are many face lift choices
You have undoubtedly heard of a variety of face lift options. There’s the weekend lift, the 3-day face lift, the midface, the mini, the deep plane, the SMAS and the one that’s on the TV commercials. To the average person, these options are very confusing. Our surgeons are extensively trained in time-proven techniques of face lifting. Your goal in a face lift is not to find the lowest price, but to get the best result-after all, your face is visible to the world every single day and, more importantly, visible to you every day. A very inexpensive face lift may be inexpensive because it is performed by someone with little experience and/or only tightens the skin, which looks good for about a year and then aging quickly returns to the facial structures which were not tightened underneath the skin. This is not the kind of result you want. Our surgeons will guide you to the most effective result, keeping recovery time and expenses to as reasonable a minimum as possible considering your particular aging pattern.
How the procedure is performed
Face lift procedures are performed under IV sedation (twilight) or general anesthesia in our Boca Raton accredited in-office surgery suite on an outpatient basis. During the procedure, incisions are made in the temple area and around the back of the ears to facilitate lifting and reattaching the underlying tissues. The cheek pad will be lifted and the neck will be addressed to clean up the jowl area. Great care is taken to avoid visible scars, so the suturing is done around and behind the ears in women and in front of the ear for men to avoid having hair growing in the ear, since a man’s beard area may be moved upward and backward during the face lift procedure. These incisions will heal to a faint line over a period of about six months. The length of the face lift procedure varies with the type of lift needed and whether other procedures are added, such as laser or chemical resurfacing, the injection of fat to plump up a thin face, or other procedures such as a brow lift, blepharoplasty (eyelid lift) or rhinoplasty (nose reshaping).
What to expect during recovery
For a full face lift procedure, recovery time ranges from about 7-14 days and slightly longer if additional procedures were done. You will experience some swelling and bruising which may extend into the eyes, causing you to look as though you have black eyes. A dressing is used for 1-2 days and a neck strap may be used afterwards as well. This can be relieved with pain medication and ice packs. Most patients are back to full activity within three weeks. You’ll come back into the office within the first few days for your first postoperative visit at which time any non-absorbable sutures will be removed as well as any drains or packing, depending on your rate of healing. |
