Facelift (Rhytidectomy)

What is a Rhytidectomy?
Lasting up to 15 years, the procedure effectively tightens loose facial skin and underlying muscle, while removing excess fat and skin. All of which can dramatically smooth deep facial creases, lift a slack and jowly jawline, and replace a "turkey neck" with a more youthful-looking, angular neckline. A facelift can't stop this aging process. What it can do is "set back the clock," improving the most visible signs of aging by removing excess fat, tightening underlying muscles, and redraping the skin of your face and neck. A facelift can be done alone, or in conjunction with other procedures such as a forehead lift, eyelid surgery, or nose reshaping.

Why choose this procedure?
As we age, humans’ skin, cells and tissues begin to deteriorate making us look older as we age. Although this is a natural process, many people feel uncomfortable with the rate at which they show age, and with their ever changing outward appearance. Sun exposure, smoking, alcohol, poor nutrition and stress can accelerate the natural aging process, making a person look years older than they really are or feel. Expertise with advanced techniques in facelift surgery enables your surgeon to improve not only the face, but the jaw and neckline as well. This provides a more youthful looking face and neck in order to help portray the young, lively person you still feel like on the inside.

Who is a good candidate?
More important than age to the success of surgery, is the condition of the facial skin and underlying bone structure. Optimum results are typically achieved in women and men whose bone structure is strong and healthy and whose skin shows marked laxity with at least some remaining elasticity. Most patients are in their forties to sixties, but facelifts can be done successfully on people in their seventies or eighties as well.

The Procedure
Facelift surgery takes 4 to 6 hours and is performed on an outpatient basis under general anesthesia. On each side of the face, an incision begins above the ear at the temple, continues along the hairline to just inside the ear, curves under the earlobe to behind the ear, and stops in the lower scalp. Through these incisions, Dr. Saferin carefully separates underlying facial muscle from skin, pulls the muscle tightly and sutures it into place. Through a separate small incision under the chin, underlying excess fat is excised or suctioned and neck muscle is tightened. Finally, the loose skin is pulled back snuggly and the excess is removed. Thin drain tubes are inserted for several days to remove any excess fluid, and a bulky dressing is wrapped around the head.

Recovery
Surface sutures and staples used to close the incisions come out in the course of three weeks. Swelling, bruising and an unnaturally tight or "pulled" appearance are to be expected. Surprisingly, however, discomfort is minimal following facelift surgery and well-controlled with head elevation, limited facial expression, cold compresses and pain medication. Numbness may persist to some degree for six months or more, but rarely does it affect normal facial movement. Most patients return to regular activity in two to three weeks, after the dressing, staples and sutures have been removed and much of the swelling and bruising are gone. The strategic placement of incisions and excellent blood supply to the face typically result in virtually undetectable scarring, often in less than a month. As the skin will remain sensitive for up to a year, daily use of a sunscreen of SPF 15 or higher is strongly recommended.