Creating the Best Facelift results in Salt Lake City & St. George, Utah
What is a Facelift?
Video illustrating what a Facelift is
Facial aging is a three-dimensional change. Contrary to previous beliefs, it is not only the skin that ages, but also the deeper structures, including the fatty layer, the muscles, the fascia and the bones! The modern facelift addresses all of these layers. Even though it is called a facelift, the aim is to improve the mid-facial tissues, the jawline, and the neck. The aim is to create a better smile, fuller cheeks, a strong jawline, and a firm neck.
Analysis of the youthful face allows us to determine what is possible and how. Attention is paid not just to tissue laxity and ptosis, but to tissue fullness, position, arches, curves, prominences, hollows, and proportions.
There is no such thing as the "standard facelift," as it simply gives a ho-hum result without the beauty inherent in all of us. Look at our method of analysis, planning, and techniques and review our results to get an idea of what is possible and our approach.
Am I a Candidate for a Facelift?
Dr. Patel has designed a very reliable way of showing you exactly the result you will get with a facelift. Over innumerable cases, this technique has been successful in predicting results much more accurately than what we used to use before: computer graphics. The trouble with computer graphics was that we were changing the appearance in two dimensions, whilst with the method we will show you, you can assess the results you can expect in three dimensions.
With proper attention to the aging process, excellent results can be obtained with anatomically performed facelifts, blepharoplasty, browlifts. This beautiful lady almost looks better now than she did 30 years ago!
"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?
Aging in Females with changes in skin, fat and bones
It is vital to review photographs from younger days. In particular, we would like to see photographs where you think the face, the jawline and the neck look the best. An examination of the skin texture, skin laxity, subcutaneous fat, excess or deficient fat, prominences, depressions and bony changes allows us to determine the type of facelift that would serve you the best. Any prior history of trauma or Bell’s palsy is taken into consideration, as is any prior surgery to the brows, eyelids or face. Based upon experience as well as predictable analysis of findings, we will give you a reliable idea of what to expect with a facelift. Our aim is to make you look younger even though you may be several years older as seen here:
A sequential approach to rejuvenation: first the brows and eyelids were operated upon, followed by a facelift and necklift yielding beautiful results
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:
A facelift and necklift together with the use of lasers and fat grafts gives a nice jawline and neck
-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:
Facial Anatomy in a Facelift
-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.
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 lineLip Liness 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).
How do we get the best possible results from a facelift and necklift?
Results of a Deep Plane Facelift and Neck Lift
1. We avoid using quick-and-easy procedures which are promoted by volume surgeons and organizations: be wary of aggressive capitalism. This gives them a standard result so they can move on to the next person.
2. We aalyze 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.
I had a facelift done by someone but I have problems and I am not entirely happy with my results. What can I do?
We see patients for second, third and fourth opinions all the time. Many changes after a facelift can be improved as seen in the photographs below and also on our "Complications" page. These changes can include inadequate improvement, unacceptable scars, ear lobes pulled forwards, loss of projection of ear lobes, weak jawlines, loose necks, pull lines (also called "kite lines", asymmetry, irregularities, and many other changes. We will be happy to see you and assess you and advise you.
What about long-term results of a facelift and necklift?
The aging process, whilst different in different people, is largely determined by genetics, lifestyle, sun exposure, diet, health, skin care and skin protection, and a few other factors. Whilst one cannot achieve the shangri-la of arresting aging, properly performed facelifts and necklifts when combined with appropriate fat grafting, use of lasers, augmentation of lips and chins, recreating age-appropriate fullness of cheeks, treatment of "smokers' lines" around the lips, correcting the downward turn of aging mouths and lips and a few other factors can yield very pleasing reliable long-term results as seen in this patient 8 years after such surgery.
Simple protection of the skin and maintenance yields gratifying results in the long term.
What kind of results can I expect after a Facelift?
I don’t want the “pulled look”.
We see patients who come to see us for a second or third opinion because they got a “pulled look” after a facelift. There are many causes of this, including just tightening the skin, limiting the incisions to such a degree that too much tension is taken up by very limited areas of the skin, failure to address the other aging changes which would give a more three-dimensional result, and failure to address the fat and deeper structures. For this reason, we don’t perform any formulaic procedures but base the procedures on the needs of each patient. In this fashion, we get an improvement which is often described by our patients as “natural”,“rejuvenating”and “youthful”. We love hearing our patients say “I love my new face.”The “money” is in designing a beautiful neck and even more gorgeous jawline:
Advanced facelift and necklift pays attention to the jawline, neck and the submental fullness and laxity
Advanced facelift and necklift techniques may be applied to men and ladies with very natural results
"Dr. Patel fixed my botched facelift which I had done three times by other surgeons. Nobody would help me with the botched surgery. I finally found Dr. Patel thanks to a hairdresser! I have put my photos up on the web to show what an amazing job he did fixing me." D. Jenks Facelift and Necklift- Las Vegas, Nevada