✔  Do you have “bulldog” cheeks?
✔  Are the laughter lines around your nose getting deeper?
✔  Are skin folds on your face making you look old?
✔ Are your eyebrows sagging, such that you have droopy upper eyelids?
If yes, then facelift and browlift surgery are for you.
As we age, the skin and muscles on our face start to loosen due to weakening of connective tissue fibres, loss of collagen and stretching of the skin. At the same time, our faces start to lose fats in critical areas like the upper cheeks. A combination of skin loosening, with loss of volume in the mid face, causes our skin to sag. A youthful face is an inverted triangle, but as we age, the triangle reverses and the face looks squarish instead.
In order to fix this problem, the two main contributing factors need to be addressed. Firstly, the skin needs to be tightened. Secondly, the loss of fat volume in the mid face would need to be replaced.
There are a lot of skin tightening treatments available on the market, from Thermage to Ulthera to Infini. Having tried all three, I have found Infini to be the best non-surgical treatment available in my practice and I recommend this treatment to all my patients with mild to moderate sagging of the face. However, for patients who have moderate to severe sagging of the face and would like a longer lasting result, then non-surgical treaments all fall short and surgical treatment becomes the best option.
What our plastic surgeon would do would be to remove a sliver of excess skin, which could be a centimeter to an inch wide, and then pull the remaining skin tightly over the face, to create the required lift.
Of course, when the offending excess skin is cut and removed, a scar would be left behind. We conceal the scar well in the hairline near the temples, and in the skin creases near the ears. Often, after recovery, patients are unable to distinguish the scar from the original skin fold creases around the ears.
As we age, the fat pads on the cheeks and face start to sag downwards due to gravity. Our face also starts to lose fats in the cheek and mid face areas and this can be seen in the deep mid face groove that begins to form.
At this point, most patients ask if this is correct? After all, the aged face actually looks plumper than a youthful face. Paradoxically, with strategic and artistic replacement of fats in the face, the face actually looks fuller and more youthful, and more beautiful. We will replace just the correct amount of fats to the hollowed out areas of the face to restore the original contours lost after aging.
Like all good things, the results don’t last forever. The results of a face lift can last between five to ten years on average. As we age, the same process of stretching and sagging occurs, and skin starts to sag again. Sometimes, we will need to operate on the same person a second time after several years, in order to restore the original results. With repeat face lift surgery, we are able to operate through the same scar, and thus there is no additional scar created.
We are able to simulate for you the amount of lift we are aiming to create and you will be able to see on your face what the final result will be during our consultation with you.
Good face lift surgery looks very natural and beautiful.  With artistic appreciation of the face contours, we are able to create just the right amount of lift to restore youthful contours without making you have that “wind tunnel” look. We take great pains to ensure that we do not over stretch the skin and distort the eyes (pheonix eyes look), lips (joker smile) or eyebrows (leading to a surprised look).
Yes, there are many different techniques being practiced by plastic surgeons.  Some advocate merely a “skin lift”, which just removes extra skin without tightening the muscles of the face.  However, with our knowledge of anatomy of the face, we know that the face sags also because the muscle layer known medically as the SMAS (superficial muscular aponeurotic system) is loosened over time. Hence, this also needs to be surgically corrected in order to achieve a long lasting lifting of the face.
A face lift is the term commonly used to refer to a lifting procedure of the lower face (below the level of the eyes), and a brow lift usually refers to a lift of the face above the level of the eyes. Essentially, both are similar procedures that remove excess skin and saggy muscles, and lead to tightening of the skin on the face.
Usually patients will have to experience mild swelling and bruising on the face which could last for one to two weeks on average. Stitches are also placed, which need to be removed after one week.
During the procedure, we will usually use a mild sedative agent (twilight anesthesia) with a combination of local anesthetic to remove the pain of the surgery. Post operatively, you may experience mild swelling and pain, but these are usually well managed with painkillers. We do not use general anesthesia due to the increased risks of mortality general anesthesia, which we feel are not justifiable for a cosmetic procedure of this nature.
Possible complications incllude bruising, swelling, injuries to the facial nerves, poor scar healing, infection and skin healing problems. With a properly qualified and experienced plastic surgeon, these complications are minimized. Also, we recommend medications such as Arnica (Sinecch) to reduce bruising, and also perform all our operations in a MOH certified day surgery centre to ensure sterility of the operating environment.
Are you interested to find out more? The topic of face lifting is a complex one, and requires a detailed face to face consultation. Call us today for an appointment at 6221 8221.