Face Lift Procedurein Darien

Unknown: A facelift is an operation designed to re-suspend and reposition tissue on the face that has dropped through both age and laxity. A small incision is made up in the hairline, back around behind the ear. on the back of the ear, then down along the hairline. Through this incision, the skin of the face is elevated. Once the skin is elevated, the deeper structures, the muscle are then re-suspended and retightened. This gives us a very tight, smooth contour underneath the skin. The skin is then gently re-draped over this. The excess is removed, and the skin is sewn back together. It's this two plane technique that really provides a natural look. Many patients are very concerned about having a facelift because they don't want that pulled, windblown, over tightened look. That generally comes from patients who are having facelifts that are either simply done incorrectly, and the tissue is pulled too hard. Or, from surgeons who have not done a full facelift in trying to cut corners and do a shorter facelift. Then you get into a relatively unnatural look. So, I think that there is a lot of marketing out there today about lifestyle lift and other types of operations. In general, all these operations will shorten the length of the time of the operation making the surgeon's job a little easier. But, not really improving the long-term result for the patient. Again, a facelift is an operation that you plan on having one time, and it should be done properly. A traditional full facelift takes about three hours, and recovery is only about two weeks. So, there's very little to be gained by doing a shorter truncated procedure. Although it may sound good initially, the long-term results simply aren't quite as nice. There are a whole variety of names out there for facelifts. Mid-facelifts, lower facelifts, neck lifts. I personally perform a traditional facelift which involves both the face and neck lift at the same time. Again, fundamentally the operation is pulling and repositioning the deeper muscular layer of your face. During the neck portion of the procedure, the neck muscle is tightened this way. The same layer that comes on the face is then pulled this way during the facelift portion of the procedure to tighten and smooth the entire layer. If you perform only one half of the operation, you tend to leave a face that's a little disharmonious. The neck or the face are tighter than the tissue next to it, and don't look quite as natural. So, I generally perform both of the operations together to give patients the most natural long-term look.