Rhytidectomies, or facelifts, are popular cosmetic procedures in the United States. They can help diminish signs of aging in your face and neck, smoothing out wrinkles and giving your face a firmer look, like it had when you were younger.
At Soler Cosmetic Plastic Surgery, we provide face lifting procedures to help you regain more youthful facial contours. Read more about what a rhytidectomy can offer and what the procedure is like.
Facelifts: What They Are
A facelift is a surgical procedure that can reduce sagging and diminish the appearance of folds of skin on your cheeks and along your jawline. Face lifting procedures can do this by removing or repositioning fat, muscle, or skin.
As you age, you will experience age-related changes that can alter the way your face and neck look. Your skin loses elasticity, becoming less firm, and fat deposits can also decrease in some areas and increase in others. All of this can alter your appearance.
Some of the changes to your face that age causes and which a facelift can help with include:
- Sagging cheeks
- Development of jowls
- Deepening of the nasolabial folds
- Loss of facial fat
- Development of a double chin
During a traditional facelift, we can pull back the skin on either side of the face, altering the tissues below so that we can recontour your face to a more youthful-looking shape. For a traditional facelift, we make incisions around your ears, at your hairline, or under your chin.
We also offer mini-facelifts. During mini-facelifts, we focus on the lower half of your face as well as your neck area. This is a less invasive procedure than a traditional facelift and can be a good option for younger people who show only mild to moderate signs of facial sagging.
The right candidates for facelifts are people with age-related facial sagging who are physically healthy, don’t smoke, and have realistic expectations about the results.
If you don’t have time to recover from surgery, cannot stop smoking, or are pregnant or breastfeeding, we will recommend alternatives to facelift surgery. Serious conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, or a bleeding disorder may prevent you from being a suitable candidate for this surgery.
Benefits of Face Lifting Procedures
Getting a rhytidectomy can help you resolve facial sagging that ranges anywhere from mild to severe while also helping restore the right amounts of fat to the areas of your face that can benefit from it the most.
Facelifts allow you to recontour your jawline, as well, which is one of the facial areas that can suffer the most sagging with age.
This procedure works for all skin types. People of many different ages can turn to it for resolving age-related concerns.
At our clinic, we can also pair face lifting procedures with other surgical options, like eyelid surgery or brow lifts.
A rhytidectomy offers natural-looking results. The technological advances of recent years allow us to do more than just tighten skin. By repositioning tissue, we can help you achieve a natural, more youthful appearance.
Preparing for a Rhytidectomy
To begin the process, you have to schedule a consultation with us. During the consultation, we will speak with you about your goals and expectations and get your full medical history, including any allergies you may have.
Our team will also ask for a list of medications and supplements you take. We will need to know if you smoke, how much alcohol you drink, and if you have had previous surgeries.
We will also evaluate your overall health. To ensure you are healthy enough for surgery, we may ask for blood work and for a physical exam.
Together, we will decide on the right facelift options, and we will discuss the type of anesthesia necessary for the procedure so that you know exactly what to expect.
Six weeks before your surgery, you will need to quit smoking. You will also have to stop taking blood-thinning medications like aspirin, as well as supplements like vitamin E and St. John’s wort.
We also recommend you stop drinking alcohol the week of surgery.
The night before your appointment, you will need to stop eating and drinking at least eight hours before your scheduled surgery time.
Facelift Surgery and Post-Op Care
On the day of the procedure, don’t wear makeup, contact lenses, or jewelry. You will need to have someone there who will drive you home and who can stay with you for the first day.
Bring clothes that you can zip or button up so that you don’t have to pull anything over your head.
We will administer the type of anesthesia we have agreed on and begin the surgery. The procedure can last a few hours.
You need to rest right after surgery. Do so with your head elevated and continue to rest for at least two weeks after the facelift procedure. For about a week after surgery, restrict your activities.
Applying ice packs to the treatment areas will help you heal. We will provide instructions on how to care for the incisions as you recover and when you can resume your regular activities.
Reduce Facial Sagging with a Facelift
A facelift can allow you to regain your youthful facial contours, especially around your jawline. It can offer lasting results that look natural without changing your facial structure.
We offer traditional and mini-facelifts at Soler Cosmetic Plastic Surgery in Tampa, FL. Our board-certified plastic surgeons tailor treatments to your individual needs and goals, and we provide discretion and expert care to each of our patients. Schedule an appointment to ask about our face lifting procedures.