Ask anyone who’s had a facelift about why they did it, and their answers are as unique as the individual. As you consider this solution, think about your motivation and expectations. It’s important that you already feel good about yourself – that you just want to improve your self-image, refresh your face. While you can expect positive results, don’t expect to look like your favorite movie star. Instead, embrace the star within you that a facelift can help reveal again.
Aging is a natural part of life, and the loss of youthful contours in the face can be due to a variety of factors, including thinning of the skin, loss of facial fat, gravity, sun damage, smoking, as well as heredity and stress.
You may have heard of a facelift to address these factors in aging or help turn back the hands of time, but what exactly is it? A facelift, or rhytidectomy, is the third most popular cosmetic procedure performed today that improves visible signs of aging in the face and neck, such as:
- Relaxation of the skin of the face causing sagging
- Deepening of the fold lines between the nose and corner of the mouth
- Fat that has fallen or has disappeared
- Jowls developing in the cheeks and jaw
- Loose skin and excess fat of the neck that can appear as a double chin or “turkey neck”
A restorative surgery, a facelift does not change your fundamental appearance and cannot stop the aging process. However, it can help you to look your best by restoring a more youthful appearance. A facelift can only be performed surgically; minimally invasive rejuvenation treatments cannot achieve the same results but may help delay the time at which a facelift becomes appropriate and complement the results of surgery.
Before you get a facelift, you will need to schedule a consultation with your plastic surgeon. When choosing Hamilton Facial Plastic Surgery for your facelift, you’ll be consulting with and cared for by double board-certified facial plastic surgeon Mark M. Hamilton, M.D., F.A.C.S. Dr. Hamilton will discuss your health history as well as your goals. Before pictures may also be taken.
Click here to see others’ remarkable facelift results by Dr. Hamilton.
The amount of time that it takes to perform a facelift can vary from patient to patient. However, it typically takes between two and four hours to perform. A facelift is performed under IV sedation, general anesthesia, or even under local anesthesia if desired. During the surgery, excess skin is removed, underlying muscles are tightened, and the skin is redraped. This helps to improve sagging facial skin, jowls, and loose neck skin.
Shortly after surgery, you’ll likely be allowed to go home and need to take it easy for several days. At the one-week point, most sutures are barely visible. In nine to ten days, you’ll likely be able to wear make-up and a complementary make-up session can be arranged with our aestheticians to help you get back out to social activities and work. By two weeks, if not sooner, almost all patients are able to get back to social activities, work, and exercise. And heavy lifting can be resumed after three weeks, but who wants to do that anyway!
Want to see more? In this video, Dr. Hamilton reviews the anatomy of a facelift.
The results also become more apparent once most of the swelling goes down a few weeks after your facelift. The amount of time a facelift lasts can vary because everyone ages differently. Most people who were motivated to have a facelift appreciate the benefits of the procedure for the rest of their lives. Shining bright like the stars they are.
Motivated to learn more about a facelift? Call us in Indianapolis/Carmel at 317-614-0639 or in Greenwood at 317-210-4339.