The patient is a 42 year old woman who noted that her face seems to have recently fallen and she felt that she looked a lot older than her stated age. She also felt that she looked sad. She complained of hooding of the upper eyelids but didn’t want to have upper eyelid surgery and noted fat bags of the lower eyelids and felt there was an indentation between the puffiness of the lower eyelid and the cheek.
At her procedure which was performed safely and comfortably under general anesthesia, the patient had a minifacelift with a neck lift, brow lift, lower eyelid surgery with laser treatment for facial wrinkles. She was very gratified by the results of her surgery and felt she looked much younger and fit in better with her friends and co-workers. She also felt a new confidence when appearing in front of others.
Mini face lift surgery is performed through inconspicuous incisions that are smaller than other face lift techniques. The decision to have a mini-face lift is really based upon what is going on in the neck and a thorough discussion with a board certified plastic surgeon is necessary to determine which face lift technique is best for each patient taking into account the patient’s anatomy and their goals for the procedure. Generally speaking, the procedure that addresses most to all of the patient’s issues is the best and also the safest approach. Minifacelifts can significantly improve a patients facial form by lifting tissues, returning them to their normal position, smoothing the overlying skin, creating proportion and harmony while preserving the natural landmarks and shape of the face. Miniface lifts can do everything a standard face lift can do over the cheek, jowel and upper neck but when there is laxity of the lower neck, there is a higher chance that a standard face lift including a neck lift will be required to achieve the best improvement with the most natural results.
A brow lift was a better choice for this patient as it not only diminished the hooding (upper eyelid skin excess) that upper eyelid surgery would address but the brow lift also restored facial proportions and made her results appear more natural. Operating on part of the face can make patients appear uneven, especially when the lower face has been smoothed and opened up and the space between the brow and upper lid remains constricted and “crunched in”. Opening up this space brings the face into harmony by creating even spaces between all of the horizontal lines of the facial features.
Patients often think that when more is done, the results are not as natural but often the opposite is true. When the lift is performed over the entire face, movement and tension are more evenly distributed and cosmetic improvement is more even, harmonious and the result appears more natural. Lifting procedures reinforce and bring into parallel strong facial lines including the jaw line as it runs parallel to the line under the cheekbone. This brings vigor, strength and youthfulness to the facial form.
