Facelift

Answer: It depends where on the face you want to have it injected. I often inject fillers for the smile lines and lips during a facelift procedure. Patients like this since they don't feel the needle at all under anesthesia.

Answer: This is a very common concern for many patients undergoing a facelift. The 'wind swept' look can be avoided if surgeon pulls the skin in a correction direction. Many believe that a 'wind swept' look is from too much skin removal. This is not necessarily true. What is most important is the direction and knowing where you can pull hard and where you should not. Please review our facelift before and after photo gallery for more information.

Answer: There are several different facelift techniques to improve jowls and sagging neck skin. Most facial plastic surgeons lift not only the skin, but also underlying muscle called the SMAS. The results will last longer when both the muscle and skin are lifted and not just the skin. For patients with significant jowls and deep smile lines, a deep-plane facelift with more extensive undermining of the skin and muscle can help significantly.

For extremely deep marionette lines, hyaluroic acid filler such as Juvederm may help. I also think combining it with deeper filler such as Radiesse often gives better result. A surgical procedure such as a lower face and neck lift to sharpen the jaw line as well as dermabrading these facial lines may further augment the result.

A natural looking facelift can be easily performed if the surgeon respects few important points. Your face has certain facial angles that cannot be altered or else you run the risk of being looking unnatural. One example is the angle of the mouth (mouth corner). I see many facelifts where the corner of mouth angle has been altered from a poor surgical technique. This can give a stretched-out look or a ‘fish mouth’ look. I would advise that you spend enough time researching about the surgeon and carefully examine his before and after photos. Feel free to read my previous blog about how best to pick your surgeon.

There are several different types of anesthesia available for a facelift. At the Choe Center, we use intravenous type (IV) of anesthesia. The anesthesiologist will be present during the entire course of the surgery to monitor the patient. The IV type of anesthesia allows us to keep the patient very comfortable without needing to paralyze the patient or intubate (put tube down the windpipe). All the necessary medication for the patient to stay still and comfortable is given through the vein. Furthermore, because inhalant gas is not used post surgical nausea and vomit rate is less than 1% at the Choe Center. We have performed hundreds of facelifts using this type of anesthesia with excellent results.