Nobody likes the thought of ageing, but it can be particularly frustrating when you start to look older than you truly are. The place where this is most obvious is on our face, where the constant exposure to environmental elements such as the sun and harsh winter winds, poor habits like smoking and natural age-related changes means that our face tends to age faster than virtually any other visible area of our body.
Unfortunately, signs of premature ageing can have a profound effect on our confidence and self-esteem. While there are a variety of topical treatments that claim to be able to reverse the fine lines, wrinkles and sagging that commonly occurs as a result of the ageing process, most patients find that their results are mediocre at best. Many are expensive and require constant use if the small improvement that they make to your appearance is to be sustained.
Fortunately, there is an alternative to spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars every year on topical treatments. Facelift surgery is a fairly common type of cosmetic surgery procedure that can permanently reduce or even eliminate signs of ageing including:
Drooping eyebrows
Lines in the corners of your eyes, across your forehead and around the lips
Deep smile lines running from your nose to your lips and your mouth to your chin
Down turning of the corners of your mouth
Sagging facial skin leading to the formation of jowls hanging around the bottom part of the face
Am I a good candidate for a facelift?
Many people are confused about when is the best time to schedule their facelift surgery. After all, should you have it as soon as you start to notice signs of ageing, or wait until the problem is much worse? In most instances it is recommended that patients schedule their facelift fairly early on in the ageing process. The reason for this is that the skin still has some of its natural elasticity and your bone structure is still quite defined. Both of these will contribute towards you having a good outcome from your procedure.
The majority of facelifts are carried out on patients who are between 40 and 60 years old. However, if you are outside of these parameters you may still be considered a suitable candidate as we assess each patient on a case by case basis.
What happens during facelift?
Before your surgery you will be given a general anesthetic. This puts you to sleep for the duration of the procedure, so you will not be aware nor feel any pain. Once you are unconscious, our staff will bring you into theater for your facelift transformation.
We will make an incision in the hairline above and in front of the ear, extending around, under and then behind it. By placing the incision in this location, any scarring is fairly well hidden. We will then lift the skin and fatty layers of tissue away from the underlying muscles and connective tissue, separating them so that we can pull the skin backwards and upwards away from the jaw. In doing this, we can tighten the entire area, fitting your skin closely to the contours of your face. Once we are happy with the positioning, the skin will be secured using sutures and any excess cut away and discarded. You will then be taken to recovery while the effects of the anesthetic wear off.
You can expect to need to stay under our supervision for at least 24-48 hours while you begin the healing process. This enables us to ensure that you receive the very best care at the start of your recovery. You will be issues with the necessary pain relief and a nurse will change your dressings. Once it is time for you to return home, you will do so with very specific instructions to follow so that you can make a swift and complication-free recovery.
If you feel that your face is betraying your age much faster than you think it should, and you would like to find out more about a facelift procedure, we would be delighted to have the opportunity to extend our extensive experience and dedication to customer care to you. We have delivered a wide variety of cosmetic surgeries to patients in Texas and beyond. To schedule your confidential consultation at our offices in Dallas or McKinney, TX, please do not hesitate to call our friendly and discreet team.
