The patient is a 57 year old woman who sought facial plastic surgery consultation because she felt she was looking more and more like her grandmother and wanted to repair the loose and sagging skin that she noticed had just recently occurred. She wanted good improvement but she didn’t want to look “plastic” or like she had plastic surgery. She had other friends that had shiny facial skin from cosmetic surgery procedures and who also had darts in their skin from face lifts and other “tip-off” that her friends had a facelift where one could see pulls in the skin. After a thorough discussion regarding why those tip-off can happen and how they can be avoided, the patient had a face lift with a neck lift and upper eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty). After her procedure, the patient was quite happy about her improvement and relieved that her skin was smooth and one could not tell she had had a face lift.
Perhaps the greatest innovation in the face lifting realm has been the use of deeper layers to lift not only the deeper tissues of the face but also to lift the skin as it rides with those deeper tissues. Though deeper than the skin, deep lifting is much safer, more longer lasting and gives a more natural and even lift to make it difficult for anyone to see a person has had a facelift. There are different types of face lifts but all are done with a deep lift concept to get the best and most natural results. Mini face lifts work over the cheek and jowel area and various types of neck lifts can extend improvement into the neck where required. As can be seen from this patient’s neck lift photos, a smooth result was achieved that blends naturally into the face. Notice also that the vertical bands of the neck caused by overactivity of the platysma muscles are gone when looking at the neck lift photos.
The patient also had upper eyelid surgery to remove excess skin. Eyelid surgeons perform eyelid lifts for multiple reasons and there are several ways to perform this procedure, also known as blepharoplasty. Skin removal not only freshens up the upper lid from a cosmetic perspective but restores facial proportion. Eyelid surgery allows for the brows to fall into their natural position and so can relieve the strain patients feel in their forehead when they unconsciously are trying to keep the excess kin of the upper lid away from the eye. This functional improvement from eyelid surgery is beneficial in most patients.
