Look and Feel Younger With a Facelift
Sagging cheeks. Droopy jowls. Neck laxity and banding. You see your reflection and can’t get past these inevitable signs of aging. You might feel great, but your face makes you look tired – and that alone is tiresome. Don’t despair. You don’t have to leave your youthful looks in the rear-view mirror. The best way to turn back the clock? It’s the F-word: That’s right, a facelift.
You might be thinking, whoa, a facelift is a really big step. Well, it IS a financial and time commitment. However, if your goal is to reestablish the facial contours you had earlier in life, a facelift delivers on that with dramatic and lasting improvement. And if you’re concerned about looking like your face has been caught in a wind tunnel, never fear, facelifts have come a long way in the last couple of decades. Rather than looking like your skin has been pulled too tight, today’s facelifts enable you to look like a younger version of you. In fact, the modern facelift can also address the early signs of aging before they even set in. Intrigued? We thought so.
A standard (or “traditional” or “full”) facelift addresses laxity and sagging in the midface, along the jawline, and the neck. Your surgeon will hide your incisions along or behind your hairline and in the contours of your ears and around your earlobes, allowing him or her to reposition the deeper tissues beneath the skin as well as remove excess skin to smooth creases and restore a naturally youthful look.
A mini facelift is ideal if you have a mild degree of jowling and sagging skin. Less invasive than a standard facelift, a mini lift enables your surgeon to tighten deep facial tissues through shorter incisions. A mini is also great if you want to head off signs of aging before they establish permanent residency on your face.
Recovery time is quicker than you might think: With a standard facelift, you can expect to be back to work in one to two weeks. Bruising and swelling peak around two days after surgery, and gradually improve over the next 10-14 days, although it’s possible you won’t be self-conscious about going out in public a week or so after your procedure. You’ll want to stay out of the sun to avoid sunburn and help your scars heal, and you’ll want to follow a regular skin care routine featuring high-quality products to keep your skin at its best.
Keep in mind that a facelift only addresses the lower two thirds of your face; if you want to improve your eyes or brow, improve the texture of your skin, or restore lost volume, consider a popular add-on such as a browlift, eyelift, laser resurfacing or fat injections. These procedures can typically be performed at or around the same time as your facelift but are separate procedures. Be sure to bring it up in your consultation if you’re concerned about any of these issues so you and your surgeon can formulate a plan.
When choosing your surgeon, be sure to ask how many facelifts he or she has performed and look at lots of before and after photos to get a handle on his or her aesthetic style. Because the anatomy of a man’s face is different than a woman’s, men considering a facelift should make sure their surgeon of choice has performed facelifts on male patients.
When performed by a skilled board-certified plastic surgeon, the results of your facelift should last for years. Nothing can stop the aging process, but once you have your procedure, you’ll always look younger than if you hadn’t had it. So, don’t let more time pass just thinking about how refreshed you can look. Schedule a consultation today with one of our five experienced board-certified plastic surgeons. We’re ready to help you put your beauty in ALL CAPS!