Face Lifts
Gravity, wind, sunshine and age can all have dramatic effects on your exposed facial skin, turning your complexion wrinkly and saggy. In 95% of cases this is why you would choose to have a face lifts.
Millions across the world have chosen to go under the cosmetic surgeons knife over the years in a drastic bid to remove those ageing effects via a full, neck, lower face or brow face lifts.
There are many things people don't realise about the realities of such a cosmetic procedure, however, and our facelift surgery guide has been created by experts to help you understand fully what a face lifst entails.
Contrary to what you might think the effects of a face lifts only last for about 10 years before they start wearing off and if you start losing or gaining weight that period can be drastically reduced.
Face lift Surgery Decisions:
So, is a face lift the right cosmetic procedure for you? This is not a straightforward question to answer as you must first think about what it is you are trying to achieve by considering such cosmetic surgery. Will other techniques work just as well? Do you really need a face lift? Are you in the right physical and mental state to go through with a face lift?
All of these questions will need answering before you sign that face lift surgery agreement and that means lots of research about other cosmetic procedures such as chemical peels, Botox, laser skin resurfacing and all the quality facial creams need to be investigated so you can rule them out and decide on a face lift as the right choice of wrinkle treatment.
That research process can be made easier by using online resources like ours so you can gleam information about each of the above procedures, while a consultation with a good cosmetic surgeon will obviously help further.
Discussing your options with your family doctor can be a good place to start and they may be able to help when choosing a good cosmetic surgeon, if our cosmetic surgeon catalogue can't. They will also explain the pros and cons of a facelift, explaining that it won't help remove fine lines and wrinkles around your mouth, for example.
Before your Face lifts Surgery:
Once you have decided to go ahead with a facelift you should start preparing yourself for the procedure itself and that means cutting down on your smoking and planning how you will get to and from the hospital as well as organising your recuperation period.
You should make work aware that you are to undergo a facelift and plan to take two weeks off if possible to aid healing and ensure swelling has reduced considerably.
Preparing for Face lifts Surgery Procedure:
Your cosmetic surgeon will explain how to prepare for your operation and as a face lift usually requires a two night stay in hospital you will be told to pack plenty of comfortable clothing.
Six to eight hours before surgery you will be told that you are now ?nil by mouth' and that means no drinking or eating. This is the time you should really begin focusing and preparing yourself mentally for the invasive surgery you are about to undergo, albeit in the hands of a very experience face lift cosmetic surgeon. The operation itself will take around three to four hours, depending on the type of facelift surgery you will undergo, and they are explained in more detail below.
Just before the face lifts surgery your surgeon will explain the minute details of the procedure to you and get you to sign a consent form stating that you are happy to accept the risks involved and that you consent for the named surgeon to perform a facelift on you. He or she may also examine your face and take photos for before and after facelift comparisons.
Traditional Face lifts Surgery:
As the name suggests this is the mother of face lifts and it involves your cosmetic surgeon making a cut following your hairline and possibly under your jaw line as well. Your skin will
Then be separated from your skull and muscles while the muscles themselves are tightened and excess fat is removed. The skin is then simply stretched back over those tightened muscles and any unnecessary skin trimmed before the cosmetic surgeon stitches that flap of skin back into your hairline, to help hide the scar.
You will then be heavily bandaged and these bandages will usually run under your chin and over your head and have to stay there for 48 hours or more. If you have had a particularly invasive facelift tubes may also be left in to help drain off blood and fluid into a bag.
Keyhole Face lifts Surgery
If you are less keen of such an invasive technique you may want to opt for keyhole surgery, where your cosmetic surgeon uses an endoscope (a flexible tube with a camera on it) to work via a TV screen to stretch and tighten the facial muscles through a few small incisions around your face. This reduces the need for big incisions, which means less pain and less recovery time.
After Face lifts Surgery:
You will feel very groggy when you first wake and you will be monitored for the first 24 hours as the anaesthetic wears off and your face begins to swell. During this time it is imperative that you rest completely and your cosmetic surgeon will advice you that you shouldn't return home for 48 hours after the operation, unless you have had keyhole face lift surgery.
Face lifts Surgery Recovery:
After this time you can be driven home to continue recuperating and the following tips will help you to get back to normal as quickly as possible:
- Take paracetemol and ibuprofen in doses that are prescribed on the pack to help ease the pain.
- Use ice to help cool the swollen areas as this will reduce the swollen area.
- Most people can return to work after about two to three weeks.
- To reduce swelling keep your head elevated.
- Don't use a sauna for a couple of weeks.
- Don't go in the sun for a couple of weeks
- Don't exercise for around four weeks.
Face lifts Surgery Risks:
Because you are under general anaesthetic and have opted for real surgery there are always risks involved, although face lifts surgery is carried out regularly and there are very few problems and side affects seen regularly.
If you are unlucky you could get some scarring around your hairline, jaw and ears and on some rare occasions patients can suffer from Deep Vein Thrombosis, but this is very uncommon.
Other potential issues could include reactions to anaesthetics and antibiotics used to treat infections, infection of the incisions, bleeding under the skin, damage to nerves in the face and loss of hair around your scars, which is sometimes due to the development of keloids or raised scars.
As we have explained, however, these things are rare and your cosmetic surgeon will explain all of these too you before you undergo your face lifts surgery.