Question: How many follow-up visits will I need after my facelift? What takes place during these?

Answer: At the very least, you will need one follow-up visit after a facelift simply to remove the sutures about a week after surgery and make sure that things are healing appropriately.  For my more sophisticated facelifts that I perform in the operating room, I will leave a small drain in overnight and I will see the patient the following day or the drain is removed.  I can then assess to make sure that there is no sign of any blood or fluid collection and then I will see them back a week after the procedure for suture removal and assess to make sure that the healing is going forward as expected and there are no signs of any infection.  Many patients that see me from long distances will actually go ahead and return back to their hometowns or home states.  Any further follow-ups will be done either over the phone or via email.  If patients are local, I typically will see them back two weeks after surgery, two months after surgery, and even six months after surgery so that I can follow them and make sure that all of the incisions heal with extremely inconspicuous scars and that they ultimately got the result that they desired.

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Question: Since my facelift, the skin behind my ears is especially lumpy. Is there anything that can be done to improve this?

Answer: It is not unusual to have some irregularities behind the ear after a facelift especially with a short scar facelift. It is very common for me to inject these irregularities with a dilute solution of steroid as this will help prevent a thickening of any scarring. I also highly recommend a rather aggressive massage in the area starting a few weeks after the procedure to help smooth and soften these irregularities. It would be extremely unusual to require any sort of surgical revision in that area but occasionally patients will have residual bumpiness or irregularities that requires a minor touchup in the office setting.

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Question: How soon after my browlift will I be able to use moisturizers and other skin care products?

Answer: Assuming that your browlift was an endoscopic browlift, you could use skin care products virtually immediately although I would caution you against massaging your forehead area very aggressively in the first few weeks. If you are just gently applying some product to the skin surface, that would be fine to do actually the day afterwards as long as the products are not going to be irritating.

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Question: After I have my weekend lift to repair my jowls, what do you suggest that I do so they do not reform? Are there any exercises that would help in this area? Would a periodic skin tightening treatment, if there are any, help forestall the reformation of my jowls?

Answer: After a mini-lift, I recommend that patients go on good skincare line and provide good sun protection to their skin as this will prolong the results of their mini-lift procedure. For patients like you, that are very interested in prolonging the outcome of their improvement I would recommend consideration of intermittent treatments using the Ultherapy device. Ultherapy uses micro-focused ultrasound to create small droplets of heat in the tissue beneath the skin. This breaks down collagen, which causes the healing process to replace this collagen, which in turn causes tightening and lifting. Ultherapy is actually the only non-surgical and non-invasive device ever to be given a lift indication by the FDA. I would therefore recommend consideration of a yearly or every other year Ultherapy treatment to try to maximize the longevity of your mini-lift.

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Question: I had rhinoplasty a few months ago and my nose has been so runny ever since. Will this get better?

Answer: Many patients after a rhinoplasty do experience a runny nose but this typically subsides in the first 2 months.  Even though you are 3 months out this will most likely resolve over time as there certainly is not anything regarding a rhinoplasty that would cause a long-term runny nose.

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