Facelift Surgery

Facelift and necklift are extremely popular plastic surgeries in the States. As we age two things start to happen: our skin starts to sag on our face and our neck, which makes us look more aged, and also the deep structures underneath the skin start to sag. In the neck, that would be the platysma muscle here, and in the face would be this mass, which is the fibrous layer that overlies the facial muscles. As those things start to sag, it starts to make your face more aged. If that's happened where you start to have a significant amount of fall, a facelift and a necklift might be something you would consider. Facelifts and necklifts have gotten less invasive over the years. They used to be a lot more invasive and had a lot more recovery. Nowadays, like a lot of medical procedures, they've become less invasive. It involves making incisions right along the borders of the ear, separating the skin and fat layer from the deep muscle and fibrous layers, tightening those deep structural layers, and then tightening up the skin to give a look that should be just a younger version of yourself. Sometimes people ask me how long a facelift and necklift takes. I usually schedule them for about 4 hours. That might be a little bit overkill. I don't think they always take that long. I tend to be pretty meticulous in surgery and take my time. Oftentimes, people ask about what the recovery is like. If they slip a necklift, I generally say that it's not a recovery usually about pain, more of swelling. When you operate on the face, it doesn't like it, and it swells. I tell people that you may swell up to the point that you don't even look like yourself in the first week after surgery, which means that you need to give yourself some time. A lot of people are scared to facelift and necklift because they've seen some celebrities who get their skin pulled very tight. They don't even look like themselves. That's just a matter of picking the right plastic surgeon. As I always have said, the best plastic surgery is the plastic surgery that no one knows you've had. If you come out looking like a different person, people are gonna know you've had plastic surgery. When you come out looking like a younger version of yourself, they may not know. I think that getting the best results for a facelift and necklift involves finding a surgeon that's going to 1) take the time to see exactly what it is that you're trying to accomplish, and 2) make sure that your work doesn't look overdone.