Add-On Procedures to Enhance Your Facelift Results
The rejuvenation process would take forever if each surgery a patient wanted had to be performed separately. Imagine recovering from your facelift, just in time to have your forehead lift and start recovering all over again. The process would take months, maybe a year depending on how much work was desired. Fortunately, for patients and doctors alike, many of the facial surgeries used to design the ideal rejuvenation process can be performed in tandem, reducing the number of hours logged at your plastic surgeon’s office as well as those spent on the couch marathon-watching your favorite show while you recover. Looking for more than one surgery to go with that facelift? Pick your favorites and discuss them with your plastic surgeon during a consultation, but first learn more about these procedures for yourself.
What a Facelift WON’T Do
Facelift surgery can, indeed, do many amazing things to improve the contour and youthfulness of the face. It is not, despite popular opinion, a complete overhaul of the entire face. The facelift procedure concentrates on the lower portion of your face, which is often sagging and droopy due to the process of aging. During a facelift, the surgeon will place incisions around the hairline near the ears, in front of and behind them, and down into the hairline below them. He will then work to tighten the sagging skin and underlying muscles in this area, remove or redistribute pockets of fat that have collected around the chin and jaw, and then smooth the skin back into place. When the surgery is completed, he will remove the excess skin and suture the incisions closed.
When all is said and done, patients of the facelift procedure will have an improved contour to their chin and jaw, enhancing their profile. They may notice a decrease in the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles throughout the lower portion of the face, as well as a smoother contour without the excess fat. Many patients appear as much as 10 years younger after their facelift procedure.
However, a facelift can’t do everything. It won’t do a thing for your too-big ears, your pointy nose, your drooping eyelids, or the wrinkles on your forehead. The facelift is an incredible procedure to help manage certain signs of aging, but it does leave room for other surgeries to be performed. In fact, it is very common for patients to request other facial surgeries in conjunction with a facelift.
Improve Definition with Chin Surgery
If you’re having a facelift, an entire procedure focused on the chin and jawline, then it just makes sense to add in other improvements to that area. A chin surgery, or mentoplasty, will reconstruct, resize or reshape the chin, adding new contour to a patient’s profile. Chin surgery can involve an implant to augment the size or it may reduce the bone size surgically if a patient’s chin is too large. Either way, the final result can enhance the look and shape of this area of the face, as well as the overall profile. Sizing down a large chin and augmenting a weak chin are both procedures that can be performed with a facelift surgery in order to improve a patient’s results.
Address Ear Concerns with Otoplasty
Although this procedure is more common with children, sometimes those as young as five years old, there are many adults who never had their ear issues corrected who still want to. Otoplasty, or ear surgery, can involve the reduction of ear size and the lessening of the ears’ projection from the head. Plastic surgeons are able to set the ears closer to the head, or pin them. They may also correct malformations of the ear, such as cupped ears or shell ears, by using discreetly placed incisions and sutures. Sometimes the ears become droopy with age and this can be addressed as well. If you’ve been unhappy with ears that seem too big, too small, too wide, too narrow, or stick out from the sides of your head, this facial surgery is another treatment option you might want to pursue alongside your facelift surgery.
Correct Droopy, Sagging Eyelids with Eyelid Surgery
The aging process can really do a number on the delicate area surrounding the eyes. The eyelids, in particular, are often affected by excess skin, lost skin elasticity, and collected fat deposits. The result of time and gravity on the eyes can be devastating, leaving patients with sagging skin, puffy eyes, and a constant look of fatigue. Wrinkles begin to form and sometimes the eyelids droop so much that they spill over the eyelashes, impeding vision. To address these concerns, plastic surgeons will perform a blepharoplasty, or eyelid surgery. This procedure includes the removal of excess skin, fat, and even muscle to alleviate the sagging and puffiness from this area. A blepharoplasty can be performed on the upper eyelid and/or the lower eyelid, right with your facelift procedure, too.
Reverse Wrinkles with a Forehead Lift
Speaking of drooping, your eyelids aren’t the only part of the upper facial area that will start to sag over time. When your eyebrows start to sag, again thanks to time and gravity, your entire look can change, leading some to believe that you look angry, tired, or sad all the time. The “worry lines” that form in the forehead and between the eyebrows can deepen, the skin can sag, and sometimes vision can be impeded by too severe a case of this condition. If you seek a forehead lift procedure, it can help you to correct the lines that have formed and the drooping that has begun, reversing your age and eliminating that constant look of anger from your face. The methods of forehead lift vary by patient so your surgery is customized to manage your exact features and concerns. Typically, the excess skin and tissue are removed and the underlying muscles are often tightened; the location of your incisions will depend on your facial features, such as your hair line. The forehead lift is very commonly paired with a facelift so that patients are able to have both the upper and lower portions of their face rejuvenated.
Change Your Look with Rhinoplasty
Perhaps at the top of the list for most requested facial plastic surgeries, the rhinoplasty surgery is a tried-and-true method for reshaping, resizing, and repairing your nasal features, both inside and out. The nose is the central feature of the face and, as such, garners a lot of attention for itself. Rhinoplasty can be used to correct issues with a nose that is too narrow, too wide, too pointy, too round at the tip, crooked, humped, too big, too small, too curved, too straight, and many other things. Often times, a rhinoplasty is performed along with a chin surgery to keep these two important pieces of the facial profile in balance. It is also often performed in tandem with a facelift procedure.
More Benefits, More Risks?
It might seem like piling on the add-on procedures will only add time to your recovery time. After all, there’s a lot for your body to do to get your face healed and back out in the world. The truth is, however, that the body is an incredible multi-tasker when it comes to repairing surgical changes. Your entire healing process should only take as long as that of the procedure with the longest recovery time, give or take a day or two. The body can do amazing things when we help it along, which means it will be essential to follow your doctor’s instructions.
To recover from your facelift, clean and change the bandages as instructed by your plastic surgeon. Use pain medication and cold compresses to manage any discomfort your experience from swelling or bruising in the first few days after surgery. Keep your head elevated, even when sleeping, and be sure to get enough rest to make a full recovery. You will be given specific instructions about your other surgery recoveries as well, so be sure to follow all of the orders provided.
As far as surgical risks are concerned, there are always risks associated with any surgery, not just plastic surgeries. Having multiple surgeries together can lower your risk of a negative reaction to anesthesia, since you will only be exposed to this once instead of several times for different surgeries. However, each procedure still carries its own risks for bleeding, infection, numbness, and other surgery-specific risks. They are not doubled by having more procedures at once, but they can’t be eliminated either. Luckily, many of today’s facial surgeries carry very low and minimal risks if you choose a plastic surgeon with proven credentials and a reputation for achieving successful results for his patients. This can minimize any harm you may face no matter how many procedures you undergo.
Plan Your Procedure with an Experienced Plastic Surgeon
Choose a reputable board certified plastic surgeon to perform your facelift and other facial rejuvenation procedures to minimize risk and maximize results. With his extensive experience, Dr. Ronald Lohner is a board certified plastic surgeon based in Philadelphia who offers facial surgeries such as chin implants, otoplasty, eyelid surgery, facelift, forehead lift and rhinoplasty to his patients. He completed his undergraduate education at Dartmouth College and medical school at UMDNJ-Rutgers. Currently, Dr. Lohner is Chief of Plastic Surgery at Bryn Mawr Hospital and holds a faculty appointment at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. His peers have selected him as a Philadelphia area Top Doctor for the last 8 years. His office is located at [primary_address] in [primary_city], [primary_statefull], on the Main Line. Please call his office at [primary_phone] to schedule a consultation for your liposuction procedure.