As you age, your facial skin loses its elasticity. Sagging skin or loose skin around your jawline or neck can be very unpleasant. A facelift, also known as a rhytidectomy, is used to rectify this appearance. A facelift is a procedure that is designed to get rid of excess fat from the face and tighten the facial muscles, resulting in a youthful appearance.
A Facelift Procedure
Your surgeon may perform a facelift alone or along with a forehead lift, eyelid surgery or nose reshaping.
The first thing your surgeon will do is sedate you using a local anesthesia. Your surgeon will make one cut that goes above your hairline, behind your earlobe and to your lower scalp. During this procedure, your surgeon may:
- Remove loose skin
- Remove some fat tissue under your skin
- Tighten your muscles
- Perform liposuction of your jowls and neck
- Close the cuts using stitches
What to Expect
Your surgeon will bandage your face. The dressings will be removed after one to two days while your stitches will be removed after five to 10 days. Your surgeon may give you medicine for relieving pain. Expect your face to have some bruises and to swell but these effects can be relieved by cold compress.
Your doctor will ask you to try as much as you can to elevate your head. You may also be instructed to avoid tobacco smoke for at least four weeks (if you are a smoker). This smoke increases your risks of tissue and skin death and delays the healing process of your face thus making your scars worse.
You can expect to resume your normal activities after three weeks. At first, your face might look strange to you and you might feel stiff but you will get used to it. Your skin might remain numb for a couple of months.
The Effects
A facelift makes your face look younger by fixing damage to your skin, muscles and fat tissues. Although your face will still age, a face-lift takes a couple of years off your face. Facelifts are used to correct sagging and deep wrinkling of tissues. A facelift cannot reverse the effects of sun damage or get rid of facial wrinkles that are below your nose, around your eyes and lips. To remedy these conditions, a facelift has to be performed with a skin resurfacing procedure like a liposuction, chemical peel or laser resurfacing.
The duration of a facelift procedure depends on hereditary, lifestyle choices like tobacco and alcohol use as well as environmental factors like sun exposure. If you adopt a healthy lifestyle, a facelift procedure could last for over 10 years or permanently for some cases.
Schedule a Consultation
With this information, the next step is to schedule a consultation with us at Georgia Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Our surgeons will be able to assist you with any questions or concerns you might have. If you would like another more done to get the look you desire, we also provide various other kinds of surgical and non-surgical procedures that might interest you. Soon you can be on your way to a much better looking you.
