“So, what is a facelift?”
A facelift is medically called a rhytidectomy. The procedure means to get rid of wrinkles. But I would say that what it really is is it’s getting rid of the excess skin of the face, making you look younger and defining the jawline.
It makes you look more youthful, gets rid of excess skin that’s developed through ageing and time.
“How old should I be to have a facelift?”
I don’t think it goes by age – obviously you have to be older than 18 – but I’ve had patients that are in their mid-20s, and the reason is they had excess skin that they couldn’t get rid of, and it was just sagging there.
So it’s not always really an age thing.
“How much scarring will there be?”
It’s minimal scarring. I avoid scarring by going right down the hairline into the ear, and then behind the ear and down the hairline, so we hide it really well.
This is especially good for women who have hair they can cover it up with. Scarring can be variable.
“How long will the results last?”
Results statistically last about 12 to 15 years. Obviously, there’s things that you can do to make it last longer. For example, by taking care of your face in general.
“How does it work?”
Basically, the way that I do it, after creating the flap and going underneath the skin, we pull up the muscular tissue, suture it, bring it back and then same thing with the platysma (if we’re working down on the neck), and we bring it back and plicate it, we bring the muscle back so it tightens up the face and then whatever extra skin is there we remove it and then we suture the skin back right into these hidden spots so that we can hide the scars.
Rather watch the video? Watch it here.