Facelift

It has oft en been referred to as "bloom" - that fr esh, full-cheeked, buoyant face that radiates health and ene rgy.You might still feel like a fl ower at its glorious best, although your face may have lost its more yo uthful look. Gravity causes sagging and the years carve lines in cheeks formerly smooth and firm. There may be deepening furrows between your mouth and chin, your jaw line may disappear, and the corners of your mouth might turn down, making you look sad or angry.

If you are unhappy about such signs of aging, you may wish to consider having a facelift. Each year more than one hundred thousand Americans, 90 percent of them women, choose to have facelifts.

What Is a Facelift?

A facelift is a surgical procedure that restores a more youthful and natural look to the face and neck. A facelift smoothes and tightens facial skin, improving the sagging in your cheeks, chin, and neck. A facelift can also lessen the grooves, known as marionette lines, from the corners of your lips to your chin and many of the wrinkles in your neck and the lower part of your face.

Today, facial plastic surgeons use techniques that achieve a natural look, turning the clock back ten years or more and giving you renewed confidence in your appearance. How long will a facelift last? There is no single answer to this question for everyone; however, a facelift may last for five to twelve years. Factors include genetics, of course, along with lifestyle: if you avoid weight gain and loss, don't smoke, and stay out of the sun, your facelift will last longer. Your age when you have a facelift is also a factor. For example, a 40-year-old person will have more skin elasticity than a 70-year-old; there-fore, the older person may see new signs of aging sooner than a younger person.

Facelifts have been a ro und in one form or another since the beginning of the twentieth century, mostly as skin-only procedures. In fact, Americans who had facelifts before the 1970s came out of surgery with smoother skin, but often with a stretched, "wind tunnel" look. Not only did these facelifts look artificial, they didn't last as long as today's more sophisticated procedures.

Today, you're likely to hear about nume ro us kinds of facelifts; however, several types and techniques are popular.

Types of Facelifts

	Facelift with endoscopic Endoscopic Forehead Lift.

SMAS Facelift

As mentioned earlier, the SMAS refers to the subcutaneous musculoaponeurotic system, which is the curtain of facial muscles that lie under the skin. In the late 1970s, the SMAS facelift became the standard. This p ro cedure tightens the SMAS as well as the skin of the lower part of the face, including the chin and the front of the neck. Because the underlying muscles are also tightened, the SMAS facelift smoothes the skin naturally, avoiding a pulled look. The SMAS facelift does not significantly change nasolabial folds or sagging fat pads under the cheek.

Another procedure, known as an extended SMAS facelift goes farther toward the nose to smooth lines around the nose and mouth.

Deep-Plane Facelift

Another type of facelift, the deep -p lane facelift can improve midface drooping and the deep folds running from the cheek to the lip.This facelift differs from the SMAS facelift in that it develops a thicker flap and allows more movement of the mid-cheek tissues. Some surgeons feel they get a more dramatic result that lasts longer with the deep-plane lift. However, some studies have demonstrated no advantage of deep-plane over standard SMAS lifts when patients had alternate sides of their faces done with the different techniques. The deep-plane lift is technically more difficult to perform, it involves greater risk to facial nerves, and it requires much longer recovery than a standard facelift.

There are variations of deep-plane lifts, including a subperiosteal lift, which lifts and repositions tissues - skin, fat, and muscle - all at once. Another variation, the composite facelift, includes an extra step to include the muscle around the lower eyelid.

Mini Lift

[next]