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What Happens During a Facelift Procedure?

Every year, 150,000 facelift surgeries are performed in the United States alone to help men and women combat aging and restore their youth. If cosmetic injectables and other non-invasive anti-aging treatments aren’t delivering the kind of facial rejuvenation results you’ve been hoping for, we can help.

At Galanis Plastic Surgery in Beverley Hills, CA, we offer facelift surgery to help lift and rejuvenate your facial skin, helping to accent your natural contours, and expose a more youthful version of yourself.

What Happens During a Facelift?

A surgical facelift is a procedure that lifts and will reduce sagging skin by removing excess tissue and fat and re-structuring the face. It is a completely customizable facial rejuvenation surgery that can be tailored by the best face lift surgeon to each patient’s specific needs and areas of concern.

The Traditional Lift

A traditional facelift, also called a rhytidectomy, is a surgical procedure aimed at reversing visible signs of aging in the face and neck. It involves making incisions typically from the hairline near the temples then around the ears while finishing at the lower scalp, allowing the surgeon to access and lift the skin and underlying facial tissues.

Excess skin is removed, and facial muscles may be tightened to restore a smoother, more youthful appearance. Traditional facelifts address moderate to severe sagging and wrinkles in the midface, jawline, and neck.

While it provides comprehensive rejuvenation, recovery may take several weeks, and results are long-lasting, often providing significant improvements in facial contour and firmness.

Deep Plane Facelift

A deep plane facelift is a surgical procedure for facial rejuvenation. It involves repositioning deeper layers of facial tissue, including muscles and fat pads, to restore a more youthful appearance. Unlike traditional facelifts, which focus on superficial layers, deep plane facelifts target deeper structures for longer-lasting results.

Incisions are made near the hairline or behind the ears, allowing access to deeper tissues. By lifting and repositioning these structures, the procedure addresses both skin laxity and underlying muscle sagging. Deep plane facelifts are more invasive than standard facelifts and may require longer facelift recovery time, but they offer natural-looking improvements in facial contour and firmness.

The Mini Lift

A mini facelift, also known as a limited incision facelift, is a less invasive surgical procedure designed to address early signs of aging in the lower face and neck. It involves smaller incisions typically placed near the ears or along the hairline.

The surgeon tightens and lifts the skin and underlying tissues to improve facial contours and reduce mild to moderate sagging. Compared to traditional facelifts, mini facelifts offer quicker recovery times and less scarring.

While they provide noticeable rejuvenation, they are best suited for individuals with minimal skin laxity and are seeking subtle enhancements in their appearance.

Neck Lift

A neck lift is a cosmetic surgical procedure aimed at tightening and smoothing the skin on the neck and jawline. A small neck lift incision behind the ears or under the chin is made to access and remove excess skin and fat.

The underlying muscles may be tightened, and tissue may be repositioned for a more youthful contour. Neck lifts address sagging loose neck skin, muscle laxity, and excess fat deposits, resulting in a firmer, more defined neck and jawline.

What Can Facelift Surgeries Address?

One of the benefits of choosing a cosmetic surgery like a facelift is that it can be custom-tailored to your needs. Not everyone has the same concerns when seeking out this treatment, but everyone wants to combat aging.

The steps taken during this procedure will be different for each patient because everyone has a different facial structure. Individuals age differently.  Some need to target hollow areas, while others have severe wrinkles that can’t be improved with Botox or fillers.

Whatever your concern, if the signs of aging have affected your appearance in such a way that they can’t be improved with non-invasive skincare treatments, we can help you reach your aesthetic goals with this procedure. The most common concerns that patients choose to treat during this procedure are:

  • Sagging eyebrows (different than eyelid surgery)
  • Severe facial wrinkles
  • Hollowed eyes
  • Midfacial volume loss
  • Facial creases and folds
  • Jawline jowls
  • Sagging neck skin

Best Facelift ProcedureWhat Kind of Results Can I Expect?

The results of this procedure are intended to be permanent. However, the one thing that gets in the way of you and permanent results is the aging process. We can slow it, but we can’t stop it.

Most patients enjoy their results for ten years or longer after undergoing this procedure; however, when you do start to notice the signs of aging years down the road, they will not be as severe as they would be if you had never undergone this procedure.

Maintaining Your Results Long-Term

Even though the aging process will eventually begin to affect your results, there are some steps you can take to help slow aging and maintain the healthiest and most beautiful skin possible. Doing so can extend your results help you enjoy a tight, toned, and sculpted face for years to come.

Take Care of Your Skin

Skincare can’t be limited to a facial every month. It begins at home, and in order to have youthful, beautiful skin, you must be committed to a morning and evening skincare routine. Consistency, discipline, and using the right products will go a long way in helping you maintain your results long-term.

Our skincare experts can help recommend the right products for daily use. There are many different professional-grade skin care lines designed to target and reverse the aging process from different fronts.

Avoid Smoking

Smoking will age you and damage your skin in the process. You can help slow the aging process when you avoid smoking and quit if you are a smoker. When you do, you’ll save yourself years of premature aging and can help maintain the effects of your procedure as long as possible.

Limit Caffeine and Alcohol

Consuming caffeine and alcohol in excess will affect your skin. Caffeine taxes your adrenal system, which can cause excessive amounts of cortisol. When your body produces too much cortisol, the stress hormone, it can result in premature aging.

Additionally, alcohol can weaken your skin’s structure, especially when consumed in excess. Limit your caffeine and alcohol intake to help keep your skin hydrated, maintain balanced hormone levels, and help preserve your body’s collagen levels long-term.

Wear Sunscreen

Sun damage is, without a doubt, the number one cause of premature aging. Every second you spend in the sun without SPF is contributing to some form of skin damage. Even when you walk from the parking lot to the store without any sunscreen, all of that time combined throughout a week or even a month is equivalent to spending hours laying out in the sun without sunscreen.

It’s important you take that into account when you are trying to extend the results of your facelift. Invest in a high-quality sunscreen that you can wear daily. Find one that blends well with makeup and has an even consistency.

If you don’t like your sunscreen, it’s going to be more difficult to apply it because no one wants a pasty-looking complexion. There are many different types of sunscreen, and you can find the right one for your skin type.

Schedule Anti-Aging Treatments

Anti-aging treatments can help extend the results of your procedure so that you can live with tighter, lifted skin for as long as possible. At Galanis Plastic Surgery, we offer different treatments designed to help keep your skin as youthful as possible.

Once you begin to notice the signs of aging, you can schedule a minimally or non-invasive treatment to help combat aging and maintain youthful skin.

We offer different injectables to help smooth wrinkles and add volume to the face and the microneedling vampire facial and radiofrequency skin tightening treatments.

If you’re interested in adding any of these treatments to your anti-aging routine, one of our skincare experts can help design a treatment plan that will help you keep your skin as young and as healthy as possible.

What Kind of Recovery Can I Expect?mini facelift procedure

Once your procedure is complete, you will begin your recovery. We will provide you with detailed directives on how to take care of your face after your procedure. Your main objective should be to get rest and plenty of it.

Getting enough rest and avoiding overexerting your body can help you heal quickly so that you can enjoy your results. Patients typically can resume their workouts and normal physical activity within three to four weeks of the procedure.

It’s important that you have someone who can help you at home once your procedure is complete.

You will need someone to drive you to and from your appointment and someone who can help you with normal household tasks and meal preparation. That way, you won’t have to spend any time trying to over-exert yourself doing laundry, cooking, or cleaning your house.

Facelift Surgery FAQs

Am I a good candidate for facelift surgery?

The best candidates for these procedures are those who cannot combat the aging process with minimally invasive skincare treatments. You may be a good candidate for this procedure if Botox, fillers, and other skincare treatments aren’t helping you reach your anti-aging goals and you have severe lines, wrinkles, deep hollow areas, loose skin, and other aging concerns.

Good candidates should be in good health and have realistic expectations about the outcome of the procedure. The goal of this procedure is to help target aging and rejuvenate your face, not to make you look like an entirely different person.

When will my face feel normal after a facelift?

Numbness typically dissipates within several months, with most individuals normal skin sensation recovering in 4 to 6 weeks. However, achieving the final surgical outcome may require 6 months or longer.

What are the risks of a face lift surgery?

For a cosmetic procedure such as a facelift, the five biggest risks include excessive bleeding, potential infection, facial nerve injury leading to facial numbness, visible scarring, and the possibility of not achieving desired aesthetic outcomes.

Schedule Your Consultation Today

If you want to learn more about this procedure and the type of results you can expect, we can answer all your questions. Our experts are here and ready to help you become the best version of yourself. Contact us today at Galanis Plastic Surgery in Beverley Hills, CA, to schedule your initial consultation with board certified plastic surgeon Dr. Charles Galanis today!

References

https://www.plasticsurgery.org/cosmetic-procedures/facelift/safety