Injectables, fillers, many modes of resurfacing, and other non-invasive procedures have put the means of defying the signs of aging into the lives of millions. Their popularity has helped to fuel a widespread realization that our appearance is not merely a matter of accepting what we are handed by genetics, gravity, and the passage of time.
Yet, at the same time, the benefits of a more fundamental and comprehensive approach – the facelift – have become better understood by more people than ever. What still surprises some folks is coming to understand that there is no one facelift. Just as no two faces are alike, so too should no two facelifts be just alike. Often more than one technique is used in a person’s own procedure, because the goal is to harmonize the features and contours of the face. Often, though, you will choose between a mini-facelift and a standard facelift, although other options – such as FaceTite – might be considered.
Mini Facelift
Patients who exhibit a mild degree of jowling – the drooping of the lower part of the cheek – and sagging skin are often good candidates for a mini facelift. This is a less invasive technique that tightens deep facial tissues through shorter incisions, typically located along the hairline above each ear and/or in the natural creases surrounding the ear. Through these incisions, structural tissues around the cheeks are lifted and tightened to correct jowling, refine the jawline, and rejuvenate a “tired” appearance.
Depending on your situation, a mini facelift may be performed using local anesthesia with sedation or general anesthesia. A mini facelift can help you address unwelcome signs of aging before they become too pronounced, postponing the need for more extensive surgery for many years.
Standard Facelift
A standard or “traditional” facelift more fully addresses moderate to advanced aging around the mid-face and neck. While the surgery is more extensive than a mini facelift, and more recovery time is required, the results are more dramatic. Through incisions located just behind the hairline, starting near the temples and around the front of the ear, hidden in the natural folds, we can reposition the deeper tissues beneath the skin and remove excess skin to smooth creases, eliminate jowling and sagging skin under the chin, and restore a naturally youthful contour to the face and neck.
FaceTite
FaceTite is a skin-tightening and fat-reduction procedure for men and women that addresses sagging skin, wrinkles, and other signs of aging. If you’re looking to lift and contour with a minimally invasive approach, then FaceTite could be a good fit for you. FaceTite can restore, firm, contour, and smooth parts of the face for a more toned or youthful appearance.
Uniquely About You
Focusing on a feature or two is not the point. How all the features appear together is the real benefit of a facelift that is right for you alone, based on goals you consider carefully. Today those goals include a realistic expectation that the surgery won’t get the compliments. Long past is the time when “having a little work” was consciously overlooked or even considered a badge of rank. That view of facelifts is as gone as the days when only “the rich and famous” considered it. The value now is more personal, more considerate, more an expression of the best side of ourselves.
Never have experience and technique been so advanced. As a result, we can expect to look younger, more rested, more relaxed, more fit – but not changed.
The Refining of an Art Form
The skill is beyond medical and the genius that has accumulated behind facelift techniques is wonderful to contemplate. The incision that lifts and smoothes one’s cheeks might be hidden in the hairline of the temples. To take years off one’s laugh lines, the procedure might be under the earlobe. Leaving no sign of incision, the neck can cease to tell tales of how time and gravity have conspired to leave their unwelcome signature.
In recent years, the acceptance of facelifts as a normal option for enhancing one’s appearance has grown rapidly. As a result, the experience in the field and the refinement of techniques has progressed geometrically. Today, we can consider a facelift with unprecedented confidence and with higher goals than ever.
Perfecting with Experience
The most delicate abilities, the keenest way of seeing, the finest surgical skill we can imagine is what gets an experienced, board-certified plastic surgeon to the starting line. It is necessary. But these skills alone are not sufficient.
The mark of a great plastic surgeon is the heart of a surgeon. The same compassion that enriches any form of medicine becomes the basis for that empathy that inspires confidence from someone considering a facelift.
The Real Result
The thing about facelifts is that how they look is just the beginning. Women and men of most every age who have taken this step say they wish they’d done it sooner, because of how it makes them feel.
What could be more beautiful than a person who’s forgotten doubt, who has left self-consciousness behind, who is instead free to be interested in all that surrounds him or her, including you? That kind of magnetism is memorable.
It is also the source of our greatest satisfaction, working with patients. The change in how they feel is the real beauty of a facelift, and the variety of them is as vast as the horizons of the people who decide to put this procedure on their side. It begins with an easy conversation here, with an experienced, board-certified plastic surgeon.