.png)
What Does a Facelift Accomplish?
The face and neck are among the first areas to show signs of aging. As we age, the upper face loses volume and fat, the lower face and neck accrue it, and the connective tissues become lax, lengthening and losing elasticity. In addition the bones shrink back, particularly around the eyes.
Those unhappy with facial aging may opt for a facelift, also known as a rhytidectomy, from Dr. Apo. Each individualized procedure targets a patient’s specific concerns and ultimate aesthetic goals.
What Happens During a Facelift?
While there are various approaches to facelift surgery, depending on a patient’s needs, most choose a lower facelift.
In a lower facelift, Dr. Apo makes incisions around your ears and below your chin. He then lifts your skin from the tissue below gaining access to the structural parts of your face, the “deep plane”. The deep plane is released from its attachments, elevated upwards moving that volume back to where it was and secures it with dissolvable sutures, giving the tissue time to heal in its new location.
Next, he removes any excess fat in your jowls and chin. Finally, extra skin is removed in a backwards direction, maintaining your sideburn in its normal location and keeping from getting the “swept” look common with attempts to use skin to drag the face up.
Despite the popularity of Botox, fillers, and other minimally invasive treatments, facelift procedures remain the best option to improve the appearance of more advanced aging on the face.
What Can a Facelift Accomplish?
A facelift is the only way to fully rejuvenate and restore your face’s youthful appearance in one procedure. It targets a wide range of concerns that develop with age and can resolve several issues simultaneously.
In addition, a facelift offers comprehensive, long-lasting youthfulness, unlike minimally invasive procedures that often can only address one or two signs of aging per procedure, with only temporary results.
Tighten Loose, Sagging Facial Skin
Gravity, loss of collagen and elastin, sun damage, and time all reduce your skin’s firmness and resilience. Facelift surgery is the best way to address the aging shape of your face and improve coarse creases. However, it is still the same skin, a facelift does not restore elastin and collagen to the skin. Often other procedures such as resurfacing might be combined with a facelift to address the changes within the skin. Facelifting is akin to tailoring your clothes, resurfacing can be thought of as cleaning and pressing them. But just like tailoring, cleaning, and pressing and old piece of clothing does not make it brand new, surgery does not give you a brand-new face.
Refine Your Jawline
With aging comes an increase in skin laxity, leading to loose skin, fat that settles under the chin, and sagging jowls. As skin loses its firmness, gravity draws it downward, creating a softer jawline, double chin, or “turkey neck.”
A facelift or neck lift tightens the underlying tissues of the neck and lower face, creating new definition in the jawline and addressing relaxed muscles, fat, and drooping skin. A facelift is the best procedure when it comes to restoring a jaw line.
Fewer Signs of Aging
Dr. Apo will lift and reposition your superficial musculoaponeurotic system (SMAS) and deep plane when you undergo a facelift. The SMAS and its extension into the deep plane contains the tissues and muscles that form your facial structure.
Repositioning and tightening your muscles and overlying skin reducing many facial aging concerns at once, especially sagging skin, deep folds and wrinkles, and poor skin tone.
The procedure’s process allows for the greatest level of improvement possible for many of the signs of an aging face.
Natural Results
In the past, facelift procedures could result in a pulled, overly tightened look. However, Dr. Apo’s approach provides an outcome that appears natural and aligned with the patient’s goals. The before and after photos on a surgeon’s website is a great way to see what kind of outcomes to generally expect.
A Younger Appearance Overall
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons performed a study to record patient expectations after facelift surgery. The study interviewed 122 patients who had undergone facelift surgery about seven months after their procedures.
On average, patients reported that the surgery had reduced their apparent age by 11.9 years. Some 97% of patients reported that the procedure met their expectations, and 40% said that it exceeded their expectations.
Additionally, almost 90% of patients reported receiving positive reactions from others about their new appearance. The majority of those interviewed also said that the procedure improved their self-esteem and overall quality of life.
Procedures Often Combined with Facelifts
Frequently, patients who choose a facelift opt to undergo complementary procedures simultaneously. Combining cosmetic procedures allows you to reduce overall recovery time, may lower costs related to anesthesia and analgesics, and offer more dramatic results.
Facelift and Eyelid Surgery
One of the most popular procedures to combine with a facelift is eyelid surgery, or blepharoplasty. Patients who experience sagging or drooping eyelid skin often appear overly tired, unengaged, or older than they are. The lower eyelids will often hollow, developing tear-troughs, bags and dark circles.
Eyelid surgery removes excess fat and sagging skin around the eyelids and tightens the underlying muscle for a fresher, younger, more open appearance. Often times an implant can restore the lost bone around the eye and lift out the hollows and tear-troughs.
Facelift and Brow Lift
A forehead or brow lift moves the eyebrows to a higher position. Excess skin or a lowered brow can cause an angrier, older appearance. A brow lift elevates the skin in the upper facial area, restoring the eyebrow’s natural arch, and ridding the area of excess, drooping skin. Typically the muscle that creates the “11’s” between the eyebrows can be removed meaning the Botox is no longer needed here.
By combining facelift surgery with a brow lift, patients can completely rejuvenate their faces to restore a youthful appearance.
Facelift and Neck Lift
Often not realized, a lower facelift includes a neck lift. This is an integral part of the facelift and is not an extra procedure.
Discover What a Facelift Can Do for You
A facelift allows you to look as youthful as you feel. Reveal a younger-looking version of yourself when you choose the skill of board-certified facial plastic surgeon Dr. Apo. Contact our office today to schedule your consultation.