Today, we have more options than ever to help patients rejuvenate their faces and take years off their appearance at any stage of the aging process, often without surgery.
For many patients, however, a surgical face and neck lift is still going to be the state-of-the-art for improving the appearance of an aging face. Once facial tissues have lost considerable volume and loose skin pools around the jowls and neck, a non-surgical method alone simply will not be able to address aging to the degree necessary. This doesn’t mean that non-surgical treatments have no benefit for these patients; quite the contrary.
Complementing face and neck lift surgery with the appropriate non-surgical treatments helps us achieve better, longer lasting results by more fully addressing the effects of aging on the skin’s surface and deep below, as well as helping patients slow the visible aging process in the future. Additionally, advancements in surgical technology we have adopted recently have led to greatly reduced recovery time, allowing patients to get back to their normal lives much more quickly after their procedures than in years past.
Combining treatments during a facelift to enhance results
In almost all patients today, I tend to do at least a light chemical peel at the same time as facelift surgery. A peel can have a wonderful synergistic effect, creating a healthier, more youthful skin quality that better matches the rejuvenated facial contours—a step that is often overlooked by surgeons but one I find makes a tremendous difference in my patients’ results.
Also, over the last decade we have focused more on restoring facial volume in addition to lifting sagging tissues. If we are in the operating room, we will use fat grafting to restore volume lost with normal aging, providing a long-lasting, natural filler that requires very little maintenance over the years. Following surgery, we can also use injectable fillers such as JUVÉDERM to restore lost volume or enhance the results of a facelift.
Professional skin care helps patients get more milage out of a facelift
Virtually every patient I see for facial surgery will benefit from a high quality skin care regimen—rarely does facial aging progress to the point where a patient needs a facelift while leaving the skin’s surface unscathed. Fortunately, our skin care professionals can help with skin care advice and recommend an appropriate at-home regimen for an individual’s needs. Many of our facelift patients will also follow up surgery with office-based procedures such as peels, IPL photorejuvenation, and some of our newer solutions such as HALO laser skin resurfacing to address visible skin aging, including sun damage, fine lines & wrinkles, scarring, and pigmentation problems.
A quicker recovery means facelift surgery is more accessible than ever
We have also taken great strides to improve the recovery experience for our facial surgery patients. With newer anesthesia techniques and improved post-operative options, our patients have less pain and swelling after surgery and require less time away from daily activity.
One option that many of our facial surgery patients choose: an overnight stay in our brand new post-op recovery unit at Sibley /Johns Hopkins Hospital. Opened in in September of 2016, this state-of-the-art bed tower offers our patients comfortable, private rooms with experienced nurses who know exactly how to help facial surgery patients recover quickly and with as little bruising and swelling as possible. Of course, many of our patients still choose to go home on the day of surgery—either from our private operating room at Center for Plastic Surgery or from the Outpatient Surgery Center at Sibley.
Several days after surgery, once our patients are through the initial healing period, our skin care staff is ready to help with early camouflage make-up, if needed, to help patients feel confident going out in public while residual bruising and swelling are still be present. From this point on, our skin care team helps facelift patients continue to work on the quality of skin care, both to prolong the results of surgery and improve overall skin health.
Learn all about facelifts at a complimentary consultation
If you would like to address signs of aging and rejuvenate your face, and you are in the Washington, DC area, I encourage you to contact our office for a consultation. I will be happy to answer your questions and help you explore your options for surgical and non-surgical facial rejuvenation. Our team approach at Center for Plastic Surgery is designed to help each patient achieve their goals quickly and effectively.