I had a full Facelift February 2013 with bad results.
What Facelift will be good for me after having full Lift already?
I had full face lift done in February 2013 and spending almost $11000 but the result
was very bad.
What kind of face lift will be good for me?
Mini lift, quick lift or full face lift again?
Thank you for your question!
You submitted two photos and you stated in your question that you had a facelift in February
2013.
With the photos you submitted, you are asking what kind of procedures you need in order
to improve the results that you are clearly not happy with.
Now you mentioned that you had a full facelift and I’ll share with you a little about the
definition of facelift and why it’s difficult to make an assessment based on the term facelift.
Let’s begin with just the procedure itself.
Looking back at your history, it’s important for you to look back and think that whether
or not you’re happy with the results after the first couple of months after the surgery.
Initially, after this type of surgery, if there’s improvement of the jawline, the
cheek area looks good and the neck looks good, chances are that you had pretty good results
and there was regression or relaxation.
The challenge with face lifting surgery which I wrote in my book “The Fine Art of Looking
Younger” which I wrote a few years ago is that the tissue that is sagging.
There are two critical elements which cause the face to sag: one is the skin and as we
get older, the skin gets thinner and stretches.
And there is the deeper layer of muscle that is referred to the platysma or the SMAS.
It is the acronym for the superficial musculoaponeurtic system.
Now the definition of facelift, facelift can mean anything from a short scar limited facelift
to a facelift incision which goes from the temple to behind the ear.
And in our practice, we actually distinguish from face and neck lift.
When we do a face and neck lift, we actually extend the incision to behind the ear and
into the hair so that we can address the band under the neck as well as the sagging skin.
We also typically make a small opening under the chin in order to do something called platysmal
plasty.
So when I look at your photos, I notice the two platysmal bands and I think there’s
an opportunity there to do something to enhance the neck definition.
This being said, as far as the original procedure is concerned, you may want to discuss this
with your original surgeon and ask what can be done in order to get the results that you
desire.
A lot of times, this is not necessarily applying to you, people want a conservative procedures
and when they have a procedure that partially improves their jawline and gives them about
60-70% improvement which in consultation they were willing to accept, after it’s all done,
sometimes you want more and that’s completely understandable.
In our consultations, we actually spend a lot of time discussing the details of what
is involved to get optimal full correction.
A lot of people also misinterpret what the definition of facelift is.
Very often, they think the facelift includes the brows where the incision is made on top.
They say they don’t want full facelift.
But the reality is that is a brow lift.
In reality, a facelift is defined by from the temple, the cheek and the jawline.
And the neck lift for a more sagging skin.
A lot of times, a facelift will address part of the neck or significant part of the neck
depending on how old you are.
If you’re younger patient, someone in their 40s or 50s, sometimes tightening this direction
and tightening the SMAS with limited platsymaplasty or release, you are able to get really nice
neck definition without making that incision in the back.
So getting into the details of your original surgery, communicating with your original
surgeon and if that is not an option, then ultimately you’re better off meeting with
other surgeons and having a physical examination.
I find that when I do revision surgery, particularly when it’s done by some of these people who
do mini procedures or shortcut procedures and they only end up with bad scars and pixie
ears and things pulled down and not looking good at all.
I end up doing the full proper face and neck lift regardless of what their operative result
state or the information they provide because it just doesn’t make much of difference
when we are actually in surgery.
The decisions are made real time during surgery with some projection and anticipation prior.
So it looks like you are probably a candidate for either an enhancement from your prior
procedure or a full face and neck lift based on the photos you submitted.
The one thing that I can’t do is a do a physical exam and feel and tell you how much
tension there is and the realistic expectations would be.
Also understand that no matter who does the facelift, no matter how well it’s done or
how technically proficient the doctor is, there is always a certain amount of relaxation
and elasticity.
When you turn your head and move up and down, the skin will stretch, the tissue will stretch
and as we get older, that tissue becomes more stretchable.
So that’s a factor that also has to be added into your decision-making process.
So to summarize, I think that you would probably be a good candidate for a face and neck lift.
Enough time has certainly passed to allow for tissue swelling and other factors to have
resolved.
I would recommend that you meet with your original surgeon and see if you can resolve
this issue.
If that’s not viable choice for you, meet with additional doctors and consider the options
of having a face and neck lift.
And as a final thought, avoid shortcut mini procedures.
They tend not to work when you have the much platysmal banding and the amount of relative
sagging that you demonstrated in your photos.
So I wish you the best of luck, I hope that was helpful and thank you for your question!