Thank you for your question. You're asking how is a Y Lift™ different from a liquid
facelift. Well, I can certainly answer that question. I'm a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon
and Fellowship-trained oculofacial plastic surgeon, practicing in Manhattan and Long
Island for over 20 years. I am also the first physician to be trained by the inventor of
the Y Lift™, on the method, and I actively perform the Y Lift™ in my offices in Manhattan
and Long Island. So I can help you understand a little bit, and it’s very understandable
why you're confused by the terminology. You’re focused in on the titanium instrument but
really there's a very basic understanding that differentiates Y Lift™ from liquid
facelift.
Liquid facelift came out as a concept many years ago, and essentially, the term facelift
to a surgeon, someone like myself who does surgical facelifts, has been so reinterpreted
in different ways from different perceptions or interpretations of what facelift means.
A facelift for a cosmetic surgeon is a surgical facelift to bring everything upwards—to
restore definition; to restore angularity to the face. In that way, there's a certain
overlap with Y Lift™, except there's no surgery.
With the Y Lift™, what we're doing is adding volume to the structure of the face which
is below the muscle, in the bone level. This is an area that dermatologists don't go to.
A surgeon, a plastic surgeon, a cosmetic surgeon, and oculoplastic surgeon who routinely does
facelifts, cheek implants, chin implants, fracture repairs, knows this area very very
well, and this is where the confusion is.
A lot of dermatologists will offer something called a liquid facelift—and I don't mean
just dermatologists only, but anybody who offers injectables will offer liquid face
lift procedures. Typically that's a combination, and an artful combination, but still a combination
of using a neurotoxin like Botox or Dysport, and fillers such as Radiesse, Juvederm, Restylane
to add volume in places where there is volume loss, but limited to the soft tissue defined
as the dermis, or the backbone of the skin, and just under the skin, in the subcutaneous
level.
What many people have seen in celebrities is that with the fillers, the face can become
very pillowy, and that is a very unattractive look. That makes you look very doughy and
it certainly doesn't make you look younger. A younger face has structure. So with a Y
Lift™, what we're doing is using this titanium instrument and we place the material, which
is usually a filler that is long-lasting, such as Juvederm or Voluma, at the deeper
level, under the muscles of the face in a very specific way, and creating improvement
of angularity of the cheekbone, of the vertical aspect of the jaw, the jawline, the chin,
so that you can actually get a facelift appearance. It is such that so many people, including,
if not especially, colleagues in our field of surgery, who will look at results and look
in disbelief and believe with no uncertainty that the procedure is really a surgical procedure.
But it really does take a very short period of time because the method is so elegant and
so precise.
It does require a lot of filler, and that often can be a cause for people to hesitate
and say “how can you put so much in my face”. Well, when you're putting it at the structural
level, and if you understand volume loss in aging, it's actually not a lot.
I keep using that because you want to differentiate
structural volumizing from just routine application of fillers.
So I think it's best now to actually meet with someone who performs the Y Lift™ and
learn if this is the right procedure for you. I always explain to my patients who come in
for consultations for the Y Lift™ that you don't necessarily have to have the full procedure,
because if you don't need certain elements of your face enhanced, then we don't have
to do it. But what's really beautiful about this concept and this message is that you
can use it to be very specific. You can use it for your jawline, you can use it for the
cheeks, and it really has been transformative in our practice in a way to help bridge a
very needed space between people who need volume and people who need face lifting.
Typically it can be a woman in her mid-40s, who keeps in shape and has good overall structure
but has lost definition—we find that this has been a really great solution for this
particular age group. But it goes beyond, people as young as their mid-30s to people
in their 60s, we have been able to use this method to help them look their best. It all
depends on individual facial anatomy in the end. So I hope that was helpful and I wish
you the best of luck. Thank you for your question.