An ideal candidate is a person who has sagging skin of the neck and along the jawline. Their overall health is good, and their expectations are realistic. A well performed facelift will rejuvenate your face and restore more youthful feature.

Reasons for having a facelift include:

• Sagging in the mid-face area
• Tired sad look
• Significant jowls along the jawline
• Loose skin and excessive fatty deposits under the chin area, resulting in a “double chin” or “turkey neck”
• Facial fat that is displaced or drooping, creating exaggerated jowls

There are other factors that help determine if you are a good candidate for Facelift Surgery:

• Skin condition: Your skin should have some amount of flexibility. The facelift is designed to stretch the facial skin to lift sagging skin and remove deep wrinkles.
• Bone structure: A well-defined underlying bone structure in your face will provide needed support for the alterations that occur during a facelift.
• Good health: You should be in good health and be free of any major medical conditions prior to your surgery. This is key for proper healing and recovery after your procedure.

Most importantly, you should have realistic expectations about your goals for surgery. Ideally, you want to look like a revitalized, refreshed version of yourself. The best way to determine if you’re a candidate is to come in for a consultation.

There are a number of techniques commonly used and it is very important to have a full consultation in order to assess each patient’s unique situation.

As each face is different, the procedures are tailor-made to each patient so the exact procedure differs from patient to patient. A consultation will be able to determine what is appropriate and effective in your situation.

The procedures typically take 2-4 hours. The more complicated and extensive procedures can take longer.

Most patients will require general anesthesia for the full facelift. Incisions are typically made behind and in front of the ears, carefully designed to minimize and conceal scarring. In some cases, the incisions extend onto the scalp.

From there the surgeon will reach the deeper layers of the face which will be repositioned and ‘lifted’.  Depending on the procedure, muscle tightening and liposuction to the neck may be performed to enhance the effect of the facelift.

Depending on the procedure, you may require an overnight stay in hospital. Tubes may be attached to the incision sites to collect fluid that is a natural response to invasive surgery of this kind. Some facelifts will not require such extensive care and hospital stays and this will be discussed fully at your initial consultation.

Cheek (mid-face) Lift:
Over time, the cheeks start to descend, making the laugh lines (known as nasolabial folds) more pronounced. Sagging cheeks give the impression of sadness or anger, but a cheek (or mid-face) lift will provide a more youthful appearance. Many patients also choose to receive fillers in addition to the cheek lift procedure, to add volume to the cheeks and further improve the nasolabial folds.

Small Incision (lower) Facelift:
A traditional face and neck lift is for patients who wish to reduce wrinkles across the entire face and neck. But for those patients with aging changes affecting the lower face in particular and only mild changes in the neck, a small incision (or mini) facelift is a better option. Also known as a “weekend lift” because of the short procedure and recovery time, the mini facelift is perfect for patients looking for substantial, long lasting improvement with minimal down time.

Neck Lift Surgery:
A full face/neck lift is reserved for those patients having severe sagging under the chin with prominent neckbands that would not be improved with a small incision facelift alone. After performing liposuction of the neck, the superficial neck muscle, called the platysma, is tightened through a small incision under the chin. The removal of excess fat and skin, and the tightening of the lower face and neck, will significantly contribute to a more youthful, long lasting appearance.

Your skin is comprised of three basic layers. There is a layer of connective tissue between the outer skin and the muscles, known as the superficial musculoaponeurotic system (SMAS for short). The goal of the SMAS plication/resection facelift is to provide a long-lasting tightening of the SMAS and the skin, in order to remove the wrinkles in the face and eliminate the jowls. We are using this technique with both the small incision and the more extensive neck lift procedures in order to provide you with a sustained, longer lasting result.

Recovery from face or neck lift surgery greatly depends on which type of procedure you receive. The neck lift incisions are larger than those performed for a facelift, so recovery time is significantly longer. Generally, the physician will remove stitches 2 weeks following the procedure. Bruising and swelling typically subside after a couple of weeks.

The most important factor to consider is whether a facelift does what you want it to do. A facelift tightens and lifts the face, but it does not fundamentally change elasticity. It does not remove fine lines or sunspots. Listen carefully to what the doctor tells you a facelift can do.

What matters is appearance and not age. It is a question of how much a person is bothered by something that can be fixed with a facelift. In general, this process begins in the early forties, with the most common age for a facelift being in the mid-fifties. The oldest age is limited only by the health of a patient.

Studies have shown that the results of a facelift last longer when the facelift is done at a younger age. Nonetheless, a facelift is not done for prevention of aging changes; it is done as problematic changes get noticed.

A nicely done study showed a portfolio of photographs of a group of patients before facelift and another portfolio of photographs to groups of observers. On average the facelift patients were judged to be nine years younger!

A patient will always look better for the rest of their life than their imaginary identical twin that never had a facelift. It is not as if one day the result goes away and you look the same as if you never had one. Remember, gravity and normal aging occurs after the facelift has healed. In general, patients will develop enough laxity that repeating the facelift starts to become reasonable after seven to ten years later. The results last longer on a younger patient, but it is also true that by and large the woman getting a facelift younger will be more interested in repeating it at a shorter interval than an older woman. The biggest single predictor of duration beyond patient age is the amount of sun damage. Thicker, oiler, and less sun-damaged skin will "resag" less with time.