FACE/NECK LIFT

Time and the effects of gravity and repetitive muscle contraction can cause changes to occur giving one a tired appearance. The skin becomes looser, wrinkles form and become deeper, the jaw line loses its sharp definition and the neck sags. The procedure known as a facelift is designed to give one a brighter, fresher, more rested-looking appearance. Through inconspicuous incisions around the ears, the tissues of the face can be accessed, repositioned, and redundant tissues removed.

A facelift may be combined with other procedures, such as eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty), forehead lifting (brow lift), or skin resurfacing (perioral dermabrasion or laser), either at the time of the facelift or in a staged approach.

The First Office Visit
Dr. Parson will gather a thorough medical history, with particular emphasis on your weight, underlying medical problems such as diabetes or high blood pressure, history of cigarette smoking, and bleeding tendencies. Skin care regimen is reviewed as well. Following this, a thorough directed physical examination of all of your facial features is carried out, including upper face or brow, eyelids, mid-face or cheeks, and neck. The doctor vocalizes what he sees to give you a comprehensive overview of how he perceives your appearance has been affected by age, with an eye to how each component relates to the other, and what might be done to improve each surgically. For patients with fine wrinkles around the mouth, Dr. Parson may suggest resurfacing.

Risks of Facelift
Complications following facelifts are infrequent and usually minor. Nevertheless, individuals vary greatly in their physical reactions to surgery, their healing tendencies, their scarring potential, and certainly in their psychological reaction to the effect of surgery. Complications that can occur include hematoma (a collection of blood under the skin that must be removed by the surgeon), injury to nerves that control facial muscles (usually temporary), and skin death (usually small areas behind the ear). Poor wound healing is usually seen in cigarette smokers, and so Dr. Parson will not perform a facelift unless you are committed to discontinue cigarette smoking for at least a month prior to operation and for one month afterwards.

Scars from facelifts are usually very inconspicuous, but in some ethnic groups they may be more obvious as a consequence of that person's particular tendency to form thick scars. This cannot be predicted prior to operation, but treatment is available to minimize the appearance of thickened scars. Certainly, any history of poor quality scars should be mentioned to Dr. Parson at the time of the consultation.

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