Face lifting
Face lifting is a surgical procedure of removing signs of aging on the face and neck. With age, the skin loses its properties that make it look fresh, sub dermal structure becomes loose and muscles lose their tonus. Face lifting itself does not block the process of aging, but virtually slows it down.
Each patient needs a different procedure. The best patients for face lifting have loose skin on their faces and necks, very obvious nasal-labial wrinkles that go from nose to the corners of mouth, then marionette wrinkles from lip corners to the chin, deteriorated oval shape of the face with loose skin on the corners of lower mandible. It is vital to give the patients younger looks with fresh complexion that leaves the overall natural effect. Good lifting of face and neck ‘reverses the clock’ for 5-10 years backwards.
At the first examination your wishes and aims will be taken into consideration; everything will be written down. Then, detailed examinations will be performed and the plan of the operation that fully corresponds to your needs will be created. Preoperative photos are used so that the procedure and the final result will be fully followed and explained to the patient step-by-step. During the examination the patient is informed about possible risk and limitation. Our aim is to give all the information to the patient so that s/he would have a clear picture of what to expect.
Face lifting may be performed in general anesthesia, but recently, following modern accomplishments, it is possible to perform it in local anesthesia, combined with sedation (patient is lightly asleep).
According to an individual patient’s needs, it is possible to perform partial face lifting of upper, central or lower part of the face and neck or all parts together. Beside this, due to the state of facial skin, sub dermal structures and skin muscles, it is possible to perform surface lifting that would involve lifting and removal of extra skin, SMAS lifting used for lifting superficial muscular aponeurotic structures or subperiosteal lifting in which the lifting is performed underneath periosteum. Each method has specific indications that are related to an individual patient’s state. Regardless of the procedure the patient chooses upon consultations with the surgeon, the surgical incisions are performed on the upper part of face beneath the hair, where the scars remain invisible later and they may be lateral next to ears where naturally folded skin already exists, then it may be performed around ears from the rear side and in the back of the head through the hair. Finally when the wound heals, the scars remain in natural folds of skin or beneath hair.
Endoscopes assisted face lifting is performed at our institution in which the surgeon monitors their work on a screen using special instruments, and this enables smaller cuts of only several millimeters, safe work as well as minimum trauma of deeper structures, which leads to much faster and easier post-operative recovery.
Eyelids correction is frequently performed within the procedure of face lifting and there is also a possibility to combine these surgical methods with less invasive methods that may additionally correct face contours in order to gain generally better result.
Upon such surgical procedures as a part of immediate post operational recovery at our hospital, the patient stays hospitalized for one or two days after the operation when the bandages are removed and stitches are removed between the fifth and the fourteenth day.
