Our topic is ‘Face Lift’
Face lift surgery is one of the most important aesthetic surgeries. The most important reason for this is that the human face is always visible. In other words, our face is the most important area that makes us who we are, reveals our emotional state and physical age. By looking at the faces of people we meet, we can guess their age and the mental state they are in. In short, we make various judgments about the person. For these and similar reasons, facial aesthetics are of special importance. Because every kind of touch there directly shows itself with the curve line.
ARE YOU ONE OF THOSE WE CAN’T AGE?
When explaining facial aesthetics, we need to explain facial aging first. What is facial aging?
Does only our skin age, do only our eyebrows fall, do only the corners of our mouths sag?
Our face is actually a very special area where dozens of organs and muscles are placed on top of each other in millimeter intervals in a very small area – approximately 20 cm by 10 cm. And the aging of this area occurs when everything in this complex structure ages separately.
What does this mean?
Bones age just like everything else. When you look at old people, you see that their upper and lower jaws fall behind the facial line, inward, and shrink. Especially in women with tooth loss, the jaw bone melts so much that the jaw slightly shifts inward from the face.
The eyeball grows. As the eye area goes down, the eyeball empties and its shape changes. Cartilages, namely the ear and nose cartilages, grow and change over time. There are fat pads on our cheeks. These are actually the fat pads that provide a young and beautiful look, and the old saying “A dash of fat covers a thousand faults” comes from. When these pads are close to the eyes on the cheeks, they make us look lively, vibrant and young. And healthy. But as we age, these pads go down and some of them melt. Therefore, they empty and deflate.
Now let’s talk about the muscles…
There are thirty or so muscles on our face. These muscles get stronger at certain points. On the weak sides, small asymmetries occur. There is a difference between the right and left halves as we age. We see that the muscles lengthen, for example, the area around the mouth falls down. The top layer of our skin also loosens and loosens with both sun damage and aging. We call the downward displacement of all these structures “old age”. In other words, when we say aging, we should not only understand the aging and sagging of the skin. For this aging and wear on the face, aesthetic plastic surgery has very successful solutions with the technology and methods that have been developing for years. I would like to tell you in detail about the facelift surgeries that we get the most successful results in facial rejuvenation after a certain age in the next section. Because wrong information is being passed from mouth to mouth about what this method actually is, what kind of procedure it is, and what happens afterwards.
SO WHEN SHOULD WE HAVE A FACELIFT?
The old belief was that we should not consider a facelift before our 60s. But now we advocate experiencing this state of well-being and beauty while we are young and using this beauty and youth for a longer time. For this reason, if you ask “When should I have a facelift?”, the ideal time for a facelift is when the signs of aging become more and more apparent, when they bother you, and when non-surgical solutions are insufficient.
Let’s say a patient in their 40s has a very saggy neck and mid-face, their cheeks are empty, their eyelids are drooping… Will they wait until they are 60 for a facelift? Why should they stay with this uncomfortable situation for twenty years? On the contrary, they can get rid of these complaints in their 40s and spend twenty years more satisfied, happier, younger and healthier. The synchronization of our soul and body at ages when we feel good gives us a magnificent state of well-being. Therefore, it is very valuable to take action without waiting for aging.
WILL I TURN INTO SOMEONE ELSE WITH A FACELIFT?
This is directly proportional to the development of facelift techniques. With some methods, the face can really become unnatural. But with the SMAS and endoscopic methods I mentioned, we can reach the state of you 20 years ago, not someone else. This makes the results successful. Because no one wants to transform from Ayşe to Fatma. In fact, the dream is to return to your younger self.
Now we come to one of the main reasons why I wrote about this topic in Vox. Do not believe those who say, “You need this” or “You need that” based on hearsay, do some research. Do not undergo surgery without being convinced of how you can achieve the most natural and correct result for yourself. Because it is not easy to make the decision to have a facelift. You also need to be psychologically prepared. Now, let’s look at the details of the facelift that I outlined above, “what it is and what it is not”, through the questions my patients ask the most.
To tell you the truth, sometimes even I say, “If you hadn’t lifted it, it would have stayed.” Jokes aside, facelift procedures, surgical or nonsurgical methods are an adventure that many people are both enthusiastic about and can’t dare to undertake. That’s why, as an aesthetic plastic surgeon, I want to break all your prejudices about facelift.
WHAT DO WE UNDERSTAND BY NATURALNESS IN FACELIFT?
In facelift-rejuvenation applications, a natural result does not mean a result that no one will understand, what we mean by natural result is not to create an artificial facial expression.
WHAT DOES AN ARTIFICIAL FACIAL APPEARANCE MEAN?
The answer to this question immediately comes to mind for all of us. It means a tension where the corners of the mouth are pulled up like a joker, lip and facial expression movements cannot be created, the cheekbones and eye area are extremely prominent and slanted, and the eyebrows are too high like Mr. Spock in Star Trek.
HOW DOES LOOKING 15 YEARS YOUNGER AFFECT OUR PSYCHOLOGY?
Since we look in the mirror every day, we cannot see the changes our face has gone through over the years as a friend we haven’t seen for years does. A facelift has such an effect. Your friend, who you haven’t seen for only a week, may be surprised and find it strange when they see the face of 15 years ago, but then they realize how good, healthy, lively and young you look. These realizations are the same for those around us and for us. Who wouldn’t want to be on the agenda at gatherings with friends and make people say “Who is that young girl in the middle?” in a group photo?
WHO CAN HAVE FACELIFT SURGERY?
Facelift surgery can be performed on men and women over the age of 40 if the skin on the face and neck has started to sag and has lost its elasticity. These effects of aging are first seen on the face and are usually noticed immediately. Eating healthy, sleeping regularly, living away from stress and sadness, doing regular sports, not smoking and drinking alcohol, drinking plenty of water, staying away from the sun and having a good genetic structure delay aging. However, it should not be forgotten that despite all this, aging is still inevitable. The aim of facial rejuvenation procedures is to slow down and reverse this aging process.
THERE ARE THREE APPLICATIONS FOR THIS:
Upper facial rejuvenation:
The forehead area, temples, eyebrows and upper eyelids are intervened. Endoscopic and open forehead lift procedures, temple lift, eyebrow lift, eyebrow suspensions, upper eyelid surgery and botulinum toxin applications are common methods.
Mid-face rejuvenation:
Lower eyelids, cheeks and cheekbones are treated. Lower eyelid surgery, endoscopic mid-face lift, mid-face lift procedures performed from the lower lid, HIGH SMAS face lift techniques, mid-face suspensions, fat injections and fillers are common methods.
Lower face and neck lift:
Face and neck lift surgeries and liposuction procedures can be counted among lower face and neck rejuvenation procedures. Among nonsurgical rejuvenation procedures, threads procedures, skin peeling, botulinum toxin, PRP (youth vaccine) and fillers are the most commonly used methods. A facelift operation is actually a combination of these operations that I have mentioned.
ARE THE RESULTS OF FACELIFT SURGERIES PERMANENT?
The aging process continues after the surgery, naturally there will be some loosening and sagging in the areas that were suspended, but this situation does not return to the pre-surgery state. Sagging may occur earlier in those with thick and oily skin.
WHAT IS THE SURGERY PROCESS LIKE?
Facelift surgery is performed under general anesthesia in the hospital. The duration of the surgery varies between approximately 45 minutes and 4 hours depending on the procedures to be performed.
HOW IS IT DONE?
The facial rejuvenation procedure first begins with the restoration of volume losses, for this purpose we use some fat that we take from your body with a small fat injection in the areas where volume loss is present, thus giving your suspended face a full, lively and youthful appearance. The surgery is continued with small incisions made in the front of your sideburn line and in front of your ear, and in the back of the scalp line behind the ear. During this procedure, the suspension layer (SMAS) of your face along with your loosened skin is prepared and suspended.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE SURGERY?
· Patients are hospitalized for one night after facelift procedures.
· You can take a bath 48 hours after the surgery.
· It is natural to see swelling and bruising. Bruising is not observed in every patient; if it is observed, it disappears in the first week.
· It may take 2-3 weeks for swelling to disappear.
· Stitches are removed after 6-9 days.
· It may take a few months for the face to fully settle and take its final shape, epending on the thickness of the skin and the procedures performed.
· As with all facial surgeries, the patient must protect himself from the sun for 1 year.
WILL THERE BE ANY SCARS AFTER A FACELIFT?
The most wondered question is whether there will be any scars after a facelift. No, there will be no visible scars after a facelift. Facelift surgery is not a scarless surgery, but the scars are planned within your natural folds, in special transition areas, and over time their visibility decreases and they become harder to notice.
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT FACELIFT
Facelift aesthetics are specific to women.
False. Today, men who want to look younger and healthier also have facial rejuvenation surgery.
Only the elderly need facelift.
False. Our criterion for deciding on facelift surgery is not only age. The skin wears out, sags and loosens over time for various reasons. Environmental and genetic effects, smoking, alcohol, diseases, sun, and even poor nutrition ncause premature aging of the skin. In such cases, surgery can be a solution at an early age.
My face will have a very tight and artificial expression after the surgery.
False. After the surgeries performed correctly by the right hands, there should be a noticeable and natural tension compared to before.
All lines on the face will disappear.
Our face continues to age after the surgery. For this reason, fine superficial wrinkles under the eyes or around the mouth continue to form. Methods such as filler, laser or chemical peeling are applied to eliminate these lines.
Scars will remain after the surgery.
Every surgery leaves a small scar. Depending on the preferred technique, the incisions are made within the natural folds, lines and scalp, so the scars that will occur after healing are hidden in these areas.
As a result of the whole approach I explained above, I wrote the title as the art of facelift, because it would be incomplete to evaluate this procedure only within the nature of a surgical procedure. This is also a philosophy about art, aesthetics and natural beauty. Stay healthy and beautiful.
