After Surgery
You wear a bandage for one day and this may be removed at home or the office. You may shampoo your hair and wash as you normally do two days after surgery.

There is usually a minimal amount of pain after surgery and so some pain medication is required. You will experience an area of numbness around the ear and surrounding area. There will be a feeling of tightness around the ear and the affected areas may be swollen and tender to pressure. These after-effects resolve themselves during the next several weeks.

Discoloration of the skin over the face and neck is almost always present. Even though it may not appear as prominently as it did the first couple of days, the discoloration gradually turns yellowish and then disappears in about seven days.

Most people resume their routine activities within 7 to 10 days. Judicious use of cosmetics is allowed.

The skin must accommodate itself to the movement of the underlying muscles and tissues; so some loosening up does take place during the first few months. A few of the fine wrinkle lines may partially reappear. This is not an indication that the facelift is “falling apart,” because from this point on, the changes in the next few years should be very minimal and slow. In fact, most people actually look better a few months after the surgery than they do a few weeks post-operatively.

For Better Healing
During the past few years, we have found that smoking plays a significant role in the way that a facelift heals and will definitely influence the resultant scar lines. For optimal healing, the patient needs a good blood supply to the skin edges. Since most of the skin over the face and neck has been loosened up, its blood supply depends on the peripheral areas. If there is an interference with this blood supply (as occurs in smokers), the scar lines will not heal as well, portions of the skin “flaps” may be undernourished, not heal well, and result in more visible scarring especially in the area behind the ear.

If you are a smoker, it is imperative that you stop smoking for at least a week prior to surgery and refrain for at least two weeks after surgery; this should alleviate some of the problems of scar formation and poor healing.

Once this operation was considered the promise of actresses, matrons and the wealthy. Today, many working men and women find that their appearance is an important aspect in their careers and employment opportunities, especially in today’s youth-oriented society.

But more importantly, a facelift enhances self-image in advancing years, when one continues to enjoy life and feel well.

Facelift
(Rhytidectomy):

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Rhytidectomy, better known as the facelift, is becoming increasingly popular. As today’s medical advances increase our life expectancy, many mature women and men believe they look much older than they feel physically and mentally. Surgery can help counteract this discrepancy. Rhytidectomy allows a person to project a new image consistent with his or her attitude.

As we age, we tend to develop wrinkling caused by loose skin. These sagging tissues appear as jowls around the jaw line, or as double chins and/or looseness of the neck skin. The facelift operation is designed to remove this looseness.

The rhytidectomy procedure alone helps alleviate looseness of the neck muscles and the appearance of the jowls. Very little change can be expected in the upper portion of the face and no change at all in the forehead region. For this reason, the facelift is frequently combined with other ancillary surgical procedures. (Please read the appropriate sections, especially the Brow and Forehead Lift page, and Eyelid Surgery page.)

How long the improvement will last cannot be accurately predicted because it depends on the aging process in the skin; this varies from one person to another. On the average, though, the improvement lasts about seven to ten years; then, you may have as much sagging as you did prior to the surgery. But remember, you should still not appear as old as you might appear if you did not have the operation. In other words, the facelift cannot permanently prevent the natural effects of aging. The surgeon can merely turn back the clock, but cannot stop it completely.

Since the results of facelift surgery are not permanent, the patient may desire to have another operation at a later date, with further significant improvement. Frequently, the second procedure need not be as extensive as the first operation, but is useful in maintaining the improved appearance.

The facelift will also not correct the fine etched wrinkling of the skin, especially around the mouth and eyes. Separate procedures are required to eliminate this wrinkling. (See section on Laser Resurfacing)

In the past few years, there has been significant change in the technique of facelift surgery.

With the newer techniques, a “double” facelift is performed. After the skin has been elevated, a “deep facelift” is done; that is, tightening the deeper muscle tissues, fatty tissues, etc., to form a foundation for the new draping of the skin. The excess fatty tissue is removed (fat sculpturing) to reshape the contour of the double chin and other loose skin tissues. (See section on Liposculpture)

In certain cases, we perform a “deep-plane facelift” or “subperiosteal facelift,” which are used for the correction of specific problems.

After making this new foundation the conventional facelift is performed to remove excess skin, but with a minimal amount of skin tension. With this double facelift, the results are significantly better and should be much longer lasting.

For facelift surgery, the hair on the head is not cut, shaved or altered drastically. The surgical incision line extends from the front of the ear, under the ear, along the crease behind the ear, and then along the hairline toward the back of the neck. Most of these incisional scars can be covered easily by hairstyling.

Many patients have fatty deposits in the jowls and/or under the chin causing a double chin, or they may have heavy bands running vertically in front of the neck. Therefore, as part of the facelift, another small incision is often made just below the chin. Through this, corrections can be made in the central part of the neck and chin. (See section on Liposculpture).

The facelift procedure is done on an outpatient basis in our office operating suite or an affiliated hospital.

Facelift (Rhytidectomy):

Facelift
(Rhytidectomy):