In our last posts we talked briefly about the history of facelifts, how they first started out (not so popular and too expensive) and how they evolved into procedures that have become one of the most in-demand cosmetic treatments. We also discussed some of the facelift types that can be suitable for you. So, let’s continue where we left off.
The non-surgical facelift types – liquid facelift
Unlike the previous facelift types that we talked about; this one doesn’t involve any surgery at all. It is also called the “liquid facelift” and it involves the usage of injectable dermal fillers.
Your cosmetic surgeon, instead of making an incision on your face and tightening your skin and SMAS (the muscular structure underneath the skin) he/she will inject dermal fillers under the skin to plum up the volume. This way the wrinkles will be flattered.
Dermal fillers have been used effectively to contour faces, restore the youthful look to cheeks and provide a tighter appearance. They are mostly used to eliminate wrinkles around the lips, eyes, cheeks, jowls and temple.
The main benefit of these facelift types is that take about 20-30 minutes, there’s no downtime, it’s cheaper than a surgical option, but it is only recommended to treat mild signs of ageing.
Thread lift is one of the facelift types with minimum surgery
This is again one of many surgical facelift types, but it is very different than other facelift techniques. It is mainly used on patients that want to get rid off mild or moderate signs of ageing such as mild sagginess, soft wrinkles and hollow cheeks.
Compared to other surgical facelift types, that can be pretty invasive, the thread lift is minimally invasive. With that in mind, it takes even less time to recover and can be done under a local anesthetic.
With this procedure, a biodegradable thread is placed into the deeper fat tissue on your face and the second end is placed out of your skin. The cosmetic surgeon then pulls the thread in order to tighten the skin and underlying tissue.
Over the next few months, the threads will dissolve and will promote natural healing processes of your body, bringing more collage to the area and making you look younger. However, you should keep in mind that even though this technique is cheaper and simpler, the end results are short-term (12 to 18 months).
Forehead lift or brow lift
Not many facelift types address the issue of ageing forehead and eyelids, the brow lift focuses on restoring the youthful look of one of the most important feature of your face – your forehead. With this procedure, you can get rid of the nasty wrinkles on your forehead and get more alert eyes. The most popular brow lift uses a horizontal incision line where the subcutaneous tissue is pulled up, the skin is tightened and any excess is removed.
Now that we have covered the most popular facelift types, let’s focus a little more on neck lifts.
Full neck lift
If you have moderate or advanced signs of ageing, having a full neck lift is the right decision. The incision is made in front of your ear, around the earlobe and upward and backward along the hairline. The tissue is pulled up, tightened and the excess skin is removed. The perks of this procedure are that it provides a significant improvement compared to other neck lift procedures and that it’s also part of some facelift types. But since it involves a pretty extensive incision the recovery time is a bit longer and there might a larger scar.
Mini neck lift
The single incision neck lift or mini neck lift is perfect if you have isolated problems in your neck area e.g. a double chin, excess fat or mild signs of ageing. This isn’t recommended for patients that have advanced signs of ageing.
Compared to the previous procedure, the full neck lift, this technique involves a much smaller incision under your chin, through which the surgeon pulls the muscles and deeper tissues up and fixes them with sutures. There’s no removal of excess skin. This is a much more affordable procedure, requires less recover since there is only one small incision. But since it’s less invasive, you cannot expect dramatic results and improvements, compared to the ones you get with the full neck lift.
Of course, different facelift types and neck lifts aren’t the only procedures that can make you look younger and youthful. In fact, many of these procedures are also combined with liposuction, dermal fillers and other skin rejuvenation techniques. Something you get to experience if you’re planning a mommy makeover procedure.
If you’re noticing signs of ageing on your face or neck, whether they are mild, moderate or advanced and you want to turn back to hands of time, contact Dr. Kotoske for a consultation and see which facelift procedure is the right one for you.
