If you do a little searching on the top trends in plastic surgery, you’ll see a list of nonsurgical treatments, such as Botox, dermal fillers, and various laser treatments. Even with the benefits that these conservative remedies provide, though, facelift surgery continues to be one of the leading surgical techniques performed today. The primary benefit of surgery as opposed to nonsurgical facial rejuvenation is that the results last much longer without the need for continual touch-ups. Here, we discuss others.

Facelift Surgery Isn’t What it Used to Be

There are a few reasons why it may be easier to get a facelift today than it was just a few decades ago. Just twenty years ago, the way a facelift was performed was to pull the skin tighter around fat, muscle, and bone. Pulling the skin tighter was considered a good outcome back then, but we’ve all seen how that can go wrong. The results were pretty obvious, which caused many people to avoid this procedure. Why? Because no one wants to look “done.” This is just as true today as it was back then. Fortunately, the techniques now used to refresh the face focus on deeper layers of tissue, including muscle, to hold the face in a naturally-rejuvenated position. Something else has changed in the past several years: we’re talking more about plastic surgery than we used to. We don’t look at a facelift, or any other plastic surgery procedure, as something to hide from others.

Facelift vs. Nonsurgical Procedures

When injectables first became popular, there was a slight dip in the number of facelift procedures being performed. That has changed. Facelift surgery is enjoying a resurgence of popularity, and we can see why. It offers particular benefits that nonsurgical treatments cannot. These include:

• Lasting results. When you rely on injectables for facial rejuvenation, you may be in the doctor’s office as often as every 3 months. After a facelift, your rejuvenated appearance lasts many years. This won’t mean you don’t want other treatments anymore, but that you certainly may not want as many.
• Correction of tissue laxity. There aren’t many nonsurgical treatments that can address one of the most concerning age-related changes, tissue laxity. Some people describe this as feeling as though their “face has fallen.” We understand exactly what they mean, and know that laxity can be difficult to address. A facelift doesn’t eliminate the problem of laxity, it repositions tissue so that the effects of collagen loss don’t change the shape of the face for many years after the procedure.
• Cost-effectiveness. People often get stuck on the up-front cost of surgical facial rejuvenation. However, when the long-term effects of surgery are taken into account, we see that this approach may be even more cost-effective than injectables.

Are you ready to see yourself in the mirror again? Call 408-840-2553to schedule a facelift consultation with Dr. Rosenthal.