Question: I’ve been thinking about getting a facelift. I’m a little overwhelmed in terms of finding a doctor. Is it important to find someone who specializes in the facelift and then how do I do that?

Answer: I think it is very important that you seek out a surgeon who specializes in facelifts since a facelift is a procedure that needs to be highly customized for each individual’s anatomy so that we maximize their benefit while minimizing their downtime.  We also want to make sure that the surgeon is comfortable performing these facelifts so that you minimize any risks of serious complications.  With that being said, trying to find a surgeon can still be rather difficult and one of the best ways is to look for a board-certified facial plastic surgeon since we specialize strictly in the face and would be considered facelift specialists.

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Question: I’ve heard a lot of doctors say that the recovery following a facelift is about 5 to 10 days. My friend had a facelift and even after 2 weeks she really didn’t feel that comfortable going out in public. Was her case unusual or is that common?

Answer: I would say it really depends on what kind of facelift technique is performed as to how long the recovery is since for minimal incision facelifts many times patients can go back to work the next day as long as they are okay covering up the area where the incisions were with their hair; otherwise, more extensive facelifts, such as an extended SMAS deep plane facelift with platysmaplasty, may take about a week to heal and it may be up to two weeks before patients are really comfortable going out in social circumstances.  There are occasional patients that still have some swelling significant enough that they do not want to go out even at two weeks but certainly by three weeks they all look very good and in the far majority of cases even by one to two weeks they look good enough to go out and perform normal day to day activities.  Obviously, this is also dependent on not only the patient’s healing and the procedure type but also the surgical skills of the provider as well as some of the perioperative care, such as keeping the head of the bed raised, intraoperative steroids, and even herbal supplements.  Over the past 10-plus years, I have made several modifications to our instructions in the time period around the operation so that we have truly been able to minimize our patient’s downtime significantly.

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Question: Can you explain what a stem cell facelift is? Is this a surgical or non-surgical procedure and how effective is it?

Answer: A stem cell facelift is essentially a form of structural fat grafting where the harvested fat is processed to try to increase the percentage of stem cells in it and then this fat is then reinserted into the face and with it stem cells that create a bit of rejuvenation.  Fat grafting and stem cell fat grafting are overall very effective at improving the volumetric enhancement of a face, but it is not going to be nearly as effective as a standard facelift would be at lifting jowls and getting rid of lax tissue under the chin.

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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: I had cheek implants over ten years ago. My face has aged since then and my cheeks are sagging somewhat. Should I get new implants, or would it be better to have some kind of face lift?

Answer: I would have to personally evaluate you to determine whether new implants would be needed or if a facelift would be adequate for correction of your concern. More than likely, a form of facelift called a deep plane facelift or extended SMAS facelift would give you the result that you desire since this style of facelift can perform a midface lift at the same time as it lifts the jowls and laxity under the chin. You, therefore, get improvement in the cheek area with rejuvenation in all of these areas of the face. If this were the case then I would simply leave the cheek implants in place and simply lift the surrounding tissue to give you the youthful contour you desire.

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