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What Are the Different Types of Facelifts?

Sep 8, 2021 | Facelift & Neck Lift Surgery (Rhytidectomy)

Do you feel like your face is ageing too fast? Are you losing your confidence because of it? Then it’s time to get a facelift procedure. In this article, I’ll discuss what are the different types of facelifts.

Thanks to advanced technology, you can choose from many types of facelifts.

Do you feel like your face is ageing too fast? Are you losing your confidence because of it? Then it may be time to consider a facelift procedure. In this article, we will discuss what are the different types of facelifts. The advantages and disadvantages of different facelift and neck lift techniques are discussed.

0:00 Different Types of Facelifts

2:36 Non-Surgical Facelift

5:11 Skin-Only Facelift

7:18 MACS Facelift

8:24 Mini Facelift

10:29 SMAS Facelift

12:14 Signature Deep Plane Facelift

13:36 Other Techniques (deep Neck lift)*

Speaker
Dr Julian De Silva

Transcript
Hello. So this is a very commonly asked question that patients ask me, what are the different types of facelifts? What is the best facelift for me, while this video is really going to go through that in some detail. And so first of all, well, how many different types of is that are? Well, many different types have been described. But we can really categorise these into approximately seven different types. And so I’m going to talk you through each of the seven different types of aids that what are the benefits of each one of the downsides of each one? And, and I’ll go through this step by step. So first of all, well, why does this matter? Why is it important? Well, in terms of the concept of the word facelift, well, if you have facial ageing, which might involve loose skin, sagging along the jaw line changes in your neck volume loss, well, sometimes this is best corrected with a facelift. But what are the different types? what and why does it matter? What is the such thing as a non surgical facelift? Is there such thing as a quick fix? Are there procedures that are associated with less recovery and faster healing? What are the potential downsides of the different facelift techniques? Are some more natural looking to some hide scars better than others? And what about these other kind of catchy names like threads and stem cell face the radio frequency? What are the contexts that these advancements can be used for? So, a little bit about myself, my name is Dr Julian De Silva and I practice in Harley Street, where my experience really is from working in London, Los Angeles and New York. And I specialise only in the face, remember ocular facial, cosmetic and plastic surgeon. And most of my practice is around eyelid surgery, blepharoplasty based elective surgery, and rhinoplasty nose reshaping, and associated techniques that help those procedures. A good proportion of my patients, our vision patients from patients had surgery elsewhere. And I’ve completed 1000s of procedures in in this era of medicine. So a little disclaimer, well this information is to help provide information to you, but it does not constitute a doctor patient relationship. So first of all, what’s the first type a non surgical facelift Well, what does this actually mean? Non in essence, it means avoiding surgery. So, non surgical techniques could be things such as Botox and fillers. net, there are also more sophisticated devices that use ultrasound, radio frequency, and these essentially a tightening the skin. Well. What are the advantages of these techniques? Well, the advantages are they avoid surgery, so generally they have a much faster recovery. And patients can look good even after a few days after having like a non surgical treatment. And really, they’re suitable for patients who have really quite early changes. And they may be a bit more focused around losing volume and volume loss. But they’re not going to address gravity and they’re not really going to address the new skin. And so they’re quite limited in what they can achieve. But the main advantage is that they have a fast recovery and the avoid the need for surgery. And so usually they can be completed on the local anaesthetic. Sometimes with topical anaesthetic. They don’t need sedation or general anaesthetic, but then their effect is a little limited. Now we’ve all seen celebrities and people who’ve had a little too much non surgical treatments. And usually this is in the form of fillers adding too much volume to the face. And we’re here with this photograph of Nicole Kidman we can see you know attractive youthful appearance with a very kind of V shaped jaw line which is one of the characteristics of a natural neutral jaw line. And then this photograph just shows more volume in the lower half lower third of her face, which if anything reduces that slim v line and makes her face just Fuller, and if anything was square. And so like many things life, a little bit of volume, a little bit of filler can be a good thing, but a little bit too much and then it doesn’t look as natural. The other limitation with non surgical treatments will they don’t tend to last that long. And many treatments don’t last more than six to 12 months and then they require repeating and they require a degree of artistic talent in order to ensure that they look natural. So the second type of facelift is a skin only facelift and this really means what it says and it has other nomenklatura, sometimes it’s called a ponytail lift, and other kind of catchy names, but essentially means that it’s suitable for patients who just have a very small amount of loose skin. And those patients can benefit from a smaller surgical procedure, that essentially just takes away a little bit of that new skin. And so it’s not lifting the structures of the face beneath the skin. And in a way, it’s important that it’s not used in patients who have more facial ageing, as it’s only going to benefit patients with loose skin. So the advantages, well, this kind of face that is going to benefit patients who have a little bit of loose skin and mild skin, a mild facial ageing, the disadvantages and the advantages that come alongside that it requires minimal anaesthetic may be done under local anaesthetic, and patients are going to have fast recovery with maybe only a few days or a week of recovery or downtime. The disadvantages are well, it is dependent on the fact that there’s no further facial ageing, because if there’s any effects of gravity, or there’s effect of more loose skin in the neck, well, it’s not going to give good results because it’s not going to lift those underlying anatomical features, which means that it can give them more stretch appearance. And that was the the downside of the very early techniques of facelift surgery tend to get very kind of stretched lines in the skin because it focused on lifting the skin and not the net layers beneath. So in some ways, it’s it’s a technique that does have an advantage for small number of patients with early facial ageing and a little bit of loose skin. But for many patients, it’s not going to be adequate. So the third type of facelift is a max facelift. And this is a rather fancy name for minimal access cranial suspension. And this technique really focuses on using three stitches to lift the face where has descended and remove the skin. So in surgical practice two relatively straightforward technique. And the advantage of that is it’s does produce good results, it does make an improvement, but it is really dependent on patients having relatively mild facial ageing, and relatively little changes in their neck area. And, and so the advantages are fast recovery, it can be done in the relatively light, anaesthesia, localised, progressive with sedation. The disadvantages of a max case that well, it tends to be less effective in the neck area doesn’t control the neck in the same way. And it doesn’t tend to effectively remove loose skin. And the fourth type of facelift is a mini facelift. And really, this is half a face and neck it means what it says. And so the scars are really limited to an area in front of the air. So there’s no scars going behind the air. And because of that the main advantages are for patients who have facial ageing in the lower third of their face, you might have some effects of gravity with jowls, soft tissues from the cheek just descending down and creating more fullness along the lower jaw line and so many faces, which is lift that era back up and smoothing out the jaw line and the scars are concealed around the front of the ear and within the hat. And this technique means that there’s no surgery behind there, and there’s minimal surgery in the neck area. And so because it’s a mini facelift, well it takes half the amount of time does a full face and neck lift. And so the recovery and the healing is also much faster than the swelling will be less and the recovery may be in the order of one to two weeks in terms of the majority of the swelling majority healing occurring. The downsides of a mini facelift is that well, if there are changes in the neck such as bands in the neck, or if there’s more loose skin. All patients need additional techniques to get the best result, but we won’t get the very best natural results. There are also variations in terms of descriptions of the mini facelift techniques such as described like an S lift, but they’re all variations on the same concept. So many festive absolutely has an advantage for some patients but there have to be relatively mild to moderate changes with less changes in the neck area. And then the fifth type of facelift is a smart facelift and this is the commonest type of facelift completed by plastic surgeons. And this technique absolutely improves the lower third of the face lifts the area of the face, it improves the neck area. Now most of the direction of ball tends to be in a lateral direction. So in this in this picture is illustrated with this blue arrow. So most of the lift is working in this direction, which improves the jaw line our neck. It does require anaesthetic, either sedation anaesthesia, or Twyla anaesthesia, whichever anaesthetic, it will be associated with some recovery, including swelling, sometimes bruising, numbness, a feeling of tightness. And you really need a good two to three weeks, if not a little bit longer for most of the swelling and recovery to occur. The main disadvantage of this technique well, because of the procedure that does involve surgery, there will be a recovery time associated with it. And so you need time dedicated for that. It does, it does result in a lateral lift. And so that lift is not necessarily a natural lift, because most of what changes with gravity tends to be in a downward direction. And so the lift is not so natural because it’s pulling more lateral direction. And sometimes additional procedures are needed like in the cheek area in order to restore volume. So that the sixth type of face there is a deep plane facelift. And then this facelift, well, it really says what it is it lifts the deep layers of the face, and then lifts in a vertical upward direction. Now a lot of the changes that happen with facial ageing are associated with gravity intend to be in a downward direction. So this type of research really restores the natural volume in the cheek area by lifting this air out and restores a more youthful V shaped the joy. So it’s a more natural kind of face. The challenges were busy to more sophisticated, sophisticated type of technique. And so less than 5% of plastic surgeons repeat this technique. And it is a technique that definitely offers a more natural appearance because it restores more of a V shaped jaw line to a face. It can be used in conjunction with other techniques and the use of the golden ratio to give more of a natural result. I personally prefer this for patients who have further facial ageing in the face from the neck because I believe it gives faster recovery and less swelling associated with the healing process. So the seventh type of face that was in a way this is a more sophisticated technique in terms of patients who have additional need in association with their patient characteristics. So for example, this lady has a very full neck and shows her neck standing almost where chin is and this lady even in her 20s had a full neck and so part of the reason for this fullness is there’s like deeply soft tissues. Often the saliva glands rather than being tight underneath the jaw line, or the saliva glands have just descended in the neck. And often there’s deep fat is within this now. So in order to create this really sharp angle between the jaw and the neck, well it requires deep Neck Surgery shaping of the underlying saliva glands and Deepak and that will give him very good neck contour. The downside is it’s associated with more swelling and more recovery. And so patients need to be made aware that they absolutely all swelling will disappear, but this kind of surgery will have a bit more recovery associated with it. Then there are patients who might have like smaller chin will benefit from the chin implant or other complimentary techniques. Patients who have a lot of ageing of the saggy skin or some damage are going to benefit from either research fussing with lasers or or radio frequency like a Morpheus. And there are techniques that can also enhance the recovery such as use of Regenerative Medicine. So, in summary, what we’ve talked about really the seven core types of facelift surgery. And just to recap is, well, we’ve got a non surgical facelift, which is not a true facelift and use different kinds of tools and equipment in order to non surgically lift the face. And the limitation is it’s really like in early facial ageing that these techniques are going to be used. And it requires artistry to avoid overtraining and overfitting. He talked about the second type of skin only type of face that really benefits patients who only have very mild skin laxity, and it just requires just tweaking that little bit of excess skin. The third type the max facelift, which is a technique that is relatively straightforward, it uses three stitches to lift the face, and its limitation is really in the neck area and patients who have more loose skin. The fourth type of mini facelift while this really is a technique that benefits patients with early to moderate facial ageing, and it won’t really enhance or improve changes in the neck and bands in the neck. The smash facelift, which is the core facelift, that most plastic surgeons utilisable. This absolutely makes a difference it’s back to tends to be more in a lateral direction. But it is associated with a degree of recovery from swelling and bruising. And so patients need time to recover from this procedure. Then the sixth type sit my signature deep plane facelift. Well, the deep play face that definitely lifts in a more vertical direction. And so it tends to produce a more natural result in a more V shaped youthful jaw line. And there’s some evidence that it results in less recovery time, less swelling, less bruising. And then the seventh is other techniques, patients who might have forged neck which is just a result of genetics inherited from their parents. While these, this requires a bit more surgery in this area to give the best possible. So So in summary, these are the seven different types of blackface and procedures. How do you choose what is the best technique for you? Well, it can be a challenge because even with this information, each person’s face is very much unique. And so the technique for that, for face of surgery very much has to be customised to your individual needs. And so you do need to do some research and have some knowledge and I hope this video has helped you in that regard. You do need to see a specialist who’s doing a lot of facelift surgery is going to be able to guide you on what’s going to be the best for you in terms of give you the best result and give you the fastest recovery. There’s a degree of experience and artistry with facelift surgery and there’s no technique that is going to suit every single patient. And rarely, there is no quick fix. And you would be great if there was just one simple technique that would help every patient but really there’s no such thing. So good luck in your search. And if there are any other questions or thoughts that would be helpful, please, please make a note on this video. If you’d like to sign up for my newsletter, please do that or if you’d like to attend in a consultation. I’d be very grateful to help you either virtually or in person. I hope this video has been useful for you. Thank you for watching.

Knowing what are the different types of facelifts helps you understand the benefits.

Please take note that your face is unique. The best type of facelift requires a thorough assessment. You can contact us for an extensive consultation.

Also, make sure that you don’t make the biggest mistakes when choosing a surgeon.

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Dr. Julian De Silva is a renowned and highly skilled facial plastic surgeon based in Harley Street, London. With a reputation for excellence in aesthetic and reconstructive surgery, Dr. De Silva is the founder of the Centre for Advanced Facial Cosmetic and Plastic Surgery. Specialising in procedures such as facelifts, rhinoplasty, and eyelid surgery, he is known for his meticulous attention to detail and commitment to achieving natural-looking results. 

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