FOR DETAILED INFORMATION ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR, AND WHAT TO EXPECT AFTER A FACELIFT AND FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS, PLEASE CLICK HERE
FACELIFT IN SALT LAKE CITY & SAINT GEORGE, UTAH
WHAT IS A FACELIFT?
When our face ages, there is a change in all the layers of the face: a three-dimensional change, which gives us the progressive aging changes one sees.
There is a false belief that changes in the skin with time is what ages us. In reality, there are aging changes affecting the subcutaneous fat layer, the muscles that move the face, the fascia (SMAS and Platysma), the muscles, and even the bones!
To achieve the best outcome the modern plastic surgeon must address all these layers, contrary to the early surgical methods.
The term “facelift” is a misnomer. In actual fact, what we are doing is a lower facelift and neck lift involving all the layers. So there is an improvement in the cheeks (midface), lower face, jawline and jowls, and laxity, fullness and bands that may affect the neck.
The aim is to create a firm jawline, strong chin, sculpted cheeks and a long, beautiful neck!
It is by studying the yourthful face and neck that we can determine the changes that we need to address: hence the importance of the surgeon carefully analyzing your photographs from your younger days.
Surgical planning will involve an improvement in skin laxity and droop (ptosis), a recreation of the fullness of the face, including prominent chin and cheekbones and creation of the beautiful shapes in ladies and chiseled faces in gentlemen! We show this in our before-and-after photographs nicely.
In summary, facelifts and neck lifts are carefully designed for each individual face: it is your face, after all. There is no such thing as a quick standard facelift. When it is one’s face, careful design and reconstruction with attention to detail are what one needs.
Dear Dr. Patel,”I put my trust in your hands and I could not be more pleased. You fixed a broken me. I am still just me and I’m looking out from the inside. You’ve made the view much nicer for those on the outside that have to look at me!
I’ve had two people that I know casually through doing business say they didn’t recognize me and took a double look. I didn’t say a word. 😂
My nephew today said, “what have you done to your skin? It looks great!” I told him. Then showed the pics. My hubby shows the pics to his patients if the topic comes up.
I’m just so happy with the results. I didn’t want to look like someone who had plastic surgery with big cheeks and protruding lips. I saw some ladies just like that at the parade of homes just days before my surgery and I got scared. That was totally wasted fear and worry!
Now I just need a butt and I’ll look decent coming and going 😂!
To say “thank you” just isn’t enough.
But THANK YOU 😘”
-C.P
The “Hammock Lift” was designed by us to improve the top two-thirds of the face. It essentially improves the forehead, the brows, the nasal bridge, the upper and lower eyelids and cheeks. This also allows us to create a feminine fullness to the cheeks in ladies and a sculpted cheek in gentlemen.
We usually perform the Hammock Lift first, followed by the lower facelift and neck lift: this gives us a complete facial rejuvenation.
The Hammock Lift ™ is an amazing procedure which gives very natural results.
“My Hammock Lift is exactly what I needed, but did not know!! Dr. Patel explained to me how the Hammock Lift improves the upper two-thirds of the face, including brows, upper lids, forehead, lower lids and cheeks. I also got an improvement along my jawline which I am thrilled with as I plan on having a lower face and necklift later but this already gets me a great improvement. I have sent my two sisters to him! Brilliant surgeon. Cannot speak highly enough about him and his team. ” J. Stevenson “Top marks”– Park City, UT
AM I A CANDIDATE FOR A FACELIFT?
We have designed a very reliable way of showing you exactly the sort of results you would get with a lower facelift and neck lift. Having used this method in hundreds of patients, we have found it to be very reliable and predictable!
Once we have shown you the types of results you can get on your own face, we can show you photographs of other people whose age and face changes are similar to yours to get an idea of what one would be aiming for.
POWER OF THE NECK
It is for this reason that I stress that the “money is in the neck”. The better the neck I give you, the better your face looks. Of course, some improvement of the neck may be obtained with local neck procedures, but the best improvement of the neck is obtained by performing a proper face and necklift.
“I have spent time today reviewing your point-by-point description of everything you did for me and how you did it; I referred to the before and after photos countless times. I am in absolute awe. Your facelift results are nothing short of miraculous. You are absolutely correct, If you had told me what you intended to do, I would have most likely taken a pass from being confused and fearful of the results. You have a gift. Your skills are beyond my comprehension. You have taken a woman, me, who had spent the better part of 15 years being injected with Juvederm to ward off my hereditary jowls, then the signs of aging. I had gotten to a point, that there was not enough Juvederm to keep up with my aging process. I had resigned myself to forever having my Grandmother’s jowls. I became discouraged. Though I loved Grandma dearly, I did not love her jowls. I also never realized I had such a gobble neck not seeing myself in 3-D on a regular basis. Then I discovered your gifts through Marlene. Though I had always said I would never, ever get a face lift due to fear of a possible adverse outcome, the joy and confidence, plus the fabulous results from Marlene sealed the deal. I can’t even begin to tell you how very pleased and joyful I am by my results thus far and I know they will only improve with time. Thank you for doing such an amazing job for me and on me! “ -Toni J
HOW WILL I BE ASSESSED?
Photographs from younger days are vital for us to make an analysis of changes that may have happened over time.
Most people will have photographs from their 20s or 30s where they liked the overall look of the face, whether it applies to brows, eyelids, cheeks or the face and neck.
We examine the skin texture, laxity of the skin, distribution of the subcutaneous fat (fat can be good!), and the general shape and curves of a face. This allows us to plan the surgery properly.
Any prior history of trauma, cancer treatment, Bell’s palsy, etc are addressed to improve the effects of these conditions.
Creating more youthful faces in men and in ladies with a natural outcome and avoiding any of the “pulled” looks is what we aim for.
HOW IS A FACELIFT PERFORMED?
There is a troubling trend of aggressive marketing of quicker procedures, small-incision procedures, weekend facelifts, etc. Unless the various anatomic changes that need addressing are carefully assessed and corrected, a less-than-ideal result will be obtained.
The very basics of a facelift involve:
-Incisions which are hidden in front of and behind the ear. Once healed, they are close to invisible.
-Some incisions will follow the temporal hairline and the occipital hairline (behind the ear). The aim is to design the incisions with a thorough knowledge of surface and cross-sectional anatomy so as to obtain almost invisible scars as seen here:
-Elevation, repositioning and tightening of the important deeper aponeurotic system (the SMAS) is performed. This is where a thorough knowledge of anatomy is important. As we have anatomy dissection courses where we teach other plastic surgeons the anatomy of the face, it allows us to maintain the highest standard of anatomical and applied anatomical knowledge:
WHAT OTHER PROCEDURES MAY BE PERFORMED WITH A FACELIFT?
It is common to perform a facelift with fat grafts, lip augmentation, cheek lifts, laser to lip line Lip Lines and skin rhytids, and, sometimes with upper and lower blepharoplasty.
Liposuction of the neck and the jawline is judiciously peformed to get a defined neck and jawline (see the before-and-after photographs, which illustrate the improvement of various different kinds of faces).
-The jowls are addressed.
-The jawline is defined.
-The neck skin and the neck bands are addressed.
-Fat grafts and lasers are frequently used to improve contour and skin appearance.
FOR HIM
2. We analyze the whole face and neck and aim for harmony as people don’t look only at your neck or cheeks.
3. With advanced training and detailed knowledge of aging, anatomy and physiology, we are much better able to address said changes with a view to a congruous outcome that lasts.
4. The skin is what everyone immediately sees: it is impossible to hide blemishes, deeper wrinkles, sun-spots, age-related discolorations, broken veins, large pores with make-up. We pay particular attention to getting the skin to look its best.
5. If necessary, the face and neck are broken up into thirds so you understand if the improvement is best broken up into two separate treatments. This reduces your anaesthesia time for any given procedure and also allows us to give you the best results as explained on the “Facial Aging” page.
6. We combine the use of fat grafts, tissue repositioning, volume augmentation, fat repositioning and removal where appropriate, proper tissue transfers, avoidance of pull-lines and three-dimensional tissue relationship positioning to give us results seen on this and other pages of our patients.
HOW DO WE GET THE BEST POSSIBLE RESULTS FROM A FACELIFT AND NECKLIFT?
I HAD A FACELIFT DONE BY SOMEONE BUT I HAVE PROBLEMS AND I AM NOT ENTIRELY HAPPY WITH MY RESULTS. WHAT CAN I DO?
SEE OUR AMAZING RESULTS WITH THE AEROLASE NEO LASER FOR SKIN TIGHTENING AND ACNE HERE
WHAT KIND OF RESULTS CAN I EXPECT AFTER A FACELIFT? I DON’T WANT THE “PULLED LOOK”.
HOW DO I KNOW IF I AM A CANDIDATE FOR A SUCCESSFUL FACELIFT AND NECKLIFT?
PLEASE SEE THE ADVICE WE GIVE OUR PATIENTS BELOW
- Are you close to the weight you like to be at? If you are within a few pounds of where you look and feel the best, it is possible for us to give you the very best results from a facelift and a neck lift. Some patients may want to lose a little weight whilst others want to put a little on. Either way, get to as close to your “best” weight as you can.
- You should not be a smoker. If you were a smoker, the healing is usually prolonged and some of the collagen changes cannot be properly reversed. If you did smoke, you should wait at least a year after your stopped smoking before having surgery.
- If the lower facial changes, the mouth, the jowls, the neck line and the laxity of the neck bother you, you would be a candidate for a facelift and a neck lift procedure.
- We generally like to get the condition of the skin of the face and the neck and chest in as good a condition as we can with a combination of lasers and peels so that when the surgery is performed, we get the best redraping of the skin and the skin looks healthy and smooth.
- You should understand that there is time needed for the healing, for the swelling to settle and for the skin to improve from our lasers, nanofatgrafts and other techniques we use.
FAQs
WHAT KIND OF ANESTHESIA WILL BE USED?
WHAT KIND OF ANESTHESIA WILL BE USED?
WHAT KIND OF SUTURES ARE USED?
With a 3-D procedure, there are several layer of sutures, accurately placed to give the lifting, tightening and filling, without leaving any tell-tale pull-lines. Some are slow dissolving sutures, others are more permanent. The skin sutures are generally removed between 7 and 14 days.
DO YOU USE LASERS FOR THIS SURGERY?
HOW LONG DOES THE SURGERY TAKE?
WHAT ARE THE MOST COMMON RISKS OF FACELIFTS?
Bleeding is not common as we pay close attention to proper hemostasis. On rare occasions, a small hematoma may collect.
Everyone will experience some numbness in the face: this resolves over weeks to months. This occurs because of the dissection of the face. This is not a complication.
Because of the dissection and repositioning of the tissues, it is common for there to be small differences in the smile between the right and left sides: this is usually only noticeable to the patient and to Dr. Patel! It recovers over a few weeks.
All faces have asymmetry and there will be some degree of asymmetry. This is to be expected.
Permanent weakness of nerves and muscles is rare.
The scars are usually very well hidden. However, some patients may have a tendency to cause hypertrophic scarring: in such cases, certain lasers and treatments will help. By-and-large, scars are rarely a problem. With Caucasian skin, pinkness of scars is to be expected for several weeks. With darker skin, some hyperpigmentation may occur.
HOW MUCH BRUISING AND SWELLING WILL I HAVE?
DOES INSURANCE COVER FACELIFTS?
HOW PAINFUL IS A FACELIFT?
ARE THERE ANY RESTRICTIONS AND WHEN MAY I RETURN TO WORK?
SHOULD I LOSE WEIGHT BEFORE MY FACELIFT?
In the first few days, everyone will experience some degree of dryness and blurry vision. You will also feel that your lids look a little tight on the outer corner where you will also feel some of the deeper sutures if you put your finger there: this is of no concern. The tightness and the bumps under the skin settle over a few weeks.
More serious complications which are very rare include excessive bleeding, hemorrhage and loss of vision.
BROWSE TREATMENTS
WE ARE HERE FOR YOU
CONTACT DR. PATEL
Do you have questions or need more answers?
Contact Info
Dr. BCK Patel MD, FRCS
1025E 3300S
Salt Lake City, Utah 84106, USA
(801) 413-3599 (phone/text)
E-Mail: bckpatelmd@gmail.com
bckpatel.info
Dr. BCK Patel MD, FRCS
617 E Riverside Dr Suite 101
Saint George, UT 84790, USA
(435) 215-0014
E: drbckpatel@gmail.com
