25 Jan Facelifts Improve Skin Elasticity and Muscle Tightness
Today’s facelifts aren’t what your mother (or 80s and 90s celebrities) underwent—and that’s a great thing. A facelift is one of the most-requested cosmetic surgeries at John Park MD Plastic Surgery, because this procedure helps patients look well over a decade younger. However, understanding exactly what a facelift entails plays a big part in understanding exactly how a surgery can so drastically turn back the clock. Lets start by considering what old-fashioned, outdated facelifts used to look like.
Understandably, many people became wary of facelifts after seeing the pulled look that was so common 10+ years ago. This look happens when a surgeon only addressed skin laxity and ignores underlying tissue. Aging happens at the skin level of course, but also much deeper. Simply tightening facial skin does not yield attractive or natural-looking results. Another problem was visible scarring. Although surgeons have always attempted to hide scars, the techniques of those days simply weren’t advanced enough to allow for near-invisibility. You may have noticed scars behind the ears when a patient had short hair or wore a pony tail. Incisions were also sometimes made in the hairline, which could become troublesome if and when a person experienced hair loss or thinning.
Today’s facelifts have come a long way. Here’s how.
Understanding Facelifts Today
Traditional facelifts have always addressed the lower half of the face and the neck. This means that a facelift always includes a neck lift (except in very rare cases where a patient would exclusively benefit from a lower face procedure without the need to address the neck). That fact has not changed, but that’s just about the only aspect of the facelift that has remained the same.
Today, a facelift entails both the trimming of excess skin and tightening of facial muscles. Plus, re-draping of the facial skin over these tightened muscles achieves a completely organic result. The surgeon separates the skin from the muscle and fat below the surface. In many cases, excess fat is removed. This is not considered an additional surgery, or additional liposuction, but is rather a routine part of today’s facelifts. As you can see, today’s facelifts are much more intricate, customized, and advanced than simply removing extra skin and suturing.
Why are Facelifts So Popular?
Now that you can see that you don’t need to worry about a stretched or fake look when you trust a reputable surgeon with your facelift, let’s consider why facelifts are so popular—although it is fairly obvious. Our faces are our usual first impressions. In today’s world, this is true both online and in real life. You might still meet someone first via email, but it won’t take long before you connect with someone on a Zoom call. In fact, the era of Zoom is why the demand for facelifts and other cosmetic surgeries has skyrocketed in recent months.
Our faces are also the first place to show signs of our decades lived. This is simply because our faces sustain the most routine UV damage. Even if we were diligent about wearing sunscreen (as we should be), sunscreen doesn’t protect us 100 percent. Plus, most of us were not slathered with sunscreen as regularly as we should have been as children, and sun damage can take decades to appear.
Turn Back Time with a Facelift
There is also the fact that the skin on our face is relatively delicate and very mobile. That’s why the skin around our eyes tends to undergo changes the quickest. It’s thin, fragile, and constantly being moved. When we first notice signs of aging, we typically notice it on the face. We also tend to collect pockets of unwanted fat on our face and below our chins with the passing years. It is really no surprise that a facelift is often one of the first rejuvenating surgeries that anyone considers.
Breast augmentation might be the most popular plastic surgery, but facelifts are not far behind. For women, our breasts can also reveal our age (which is why pairing plastic surgeries, such as a facelift and breast augmentation, is so common). Still, we tend to notice our faces well before other parts of our body. Is a facelift right for you? Find out by completing our online form or calling John Park MD Plastic Surgery at (949) 777-6883 to schedule a complimentary consultation.