Facelift surgery is probably the best known cosmetic facial procedure and is the absolute gold standard for lower face and neck rejuvenation. Although there are many new technology that supposedly address skin and neck tightening (eg. Micro-needling, PDO thread lift, Pelleve heat therapy) none of these can come close to the improvement and longevity of traditional facelift surgery.
Facelift surgery was developed and refined over a century ago and has undergone many changes will stop the facelift that your parents may have had is not the same as today’s contemporary techniques. A generation ago, a facelift had an average hospital day stay of three to four days. Facelift surgery typically takes 2-3hours and patients go home on the same day. With the recent advances and instruments, technology and anaesthesia facelift surgery has never been easier or more affordable.
Another difference in today’s facelift patient is the age today patients do not want to wait until they look old to have cosmetic surgery. They want to stay younger looking all their life. In the past most patients waited until their sixth decade and underwent a big operation with an extended recovery. The today’s patient opt to have smaller procedure along the way and avoid the overhaul their parents had. Performing smaller cosmetic procedures along the way may require patient to have them again later in life but again they will avoid looking aged.
The comprehensive facelift
When does a mini-lift become a maxi-lift?
A common question for many patients is do I need a full facelift? The term full facelift is very misleading and means different things to different surgeons and patients. Basically, as stated in the previous pages facelift addresses their lower face and neck and come in small, medium and large varieties.
While patients with more aging changes need a larger type of lift, the procedure for life is very similar to the mini lift. When most patient refer to a full facelift they are actually talking about traditional facelift with simultaneous rejuvenation procedure on the upper and mid face such as eyelid surgery, brow lift and cheek implants.
The patient with more aging changes (frequently hereditary related), the incisions and the degree of skin elevation requires a more extensive procedure. We call larger procedure a comprehensive facelift. It is basically a larger version of the mini lift to address the larger aging changes of the lower face and neck.
Most patients will take two weeks away from work with a comprehensive facelift procedure If this is not possible, some patients will have their surgery or a Thursday or a Friday. This gives them a weekend, the next five day work week, and another weekend to recover. By doing this they can recover 9 to 10 days and only miss a single work week. Most of these patients can wear sunglasses, turtleneck shirts and make up and get out of the house after a week but will usually recover in an additional week before returning to work. Patients who can work from home are usually able to do so at one week.
As stated earlier, there are many misleading marketing materials about supposed knew facelift that are done with patients awake, don’t require bandages, no time away from work, etc. The patient must really be aware all these procedures, especially if they have significant aging of the face and neck. Performing a small face lift on a patient who needs a large one will lead to an unhappy patient with compromised results. The lift will not be as tight as or as long. Many patients have fallen prey to procedure that sounded too good to be true