Facelift

Used For

Correction of cheek and neck sagging, neck “wottle”, prominent jowls, and cheek hollowing.

Down Time

2 weeks

How It Works

The most effective way to address sagging of the lower face, a facelift procedure is performed through incisions hidden around the ear. Utilizing a deep-plane facelift technique, the muscles and fat pads of the face are repositioned to their natural positions. Extra skin is then removed and incisions are carefully closed to avoid obvious evidence of a surgical procedure.  I avoid “pulled” or “stretched” results by replacing tissues in their natural position. This can be demonstrated by pulling the tissues “up” rather than “back”. Additionally the muscles in the front of the neck, over time, separate to form vertical bands. These can be addressed with a platysmaplasty, which divides portions of the muscle and sews the edges together to make them less prominent. The facelift is combined with a necklift in most cases.

Side Effects

Most common side effect is swelling and bruising of the cheeks, forehead, and neck.

What to Expect

There will be swelling of the face that typically increases over the first 3 days and then gradually goes away. Typically 80% of the swelling is gone at the end of 2 weeks, 90% of swelling is gone at 2 months, and the rest goes away gradually over the course of the next year. Incisions heal well in concealed areas, these can be slightly pink while they are healing but will fade over the next couple of months. Makeup can be used to conceal incisions while they are pink. There will be some numbness of the top of the head and the cheeks which is temporary and will improve over the course of 3-8 months.