Face lifts-Worth it?
As I favour a minimally invasive and indeed scarless approach to facial cosmetic enhancement, I now receive fewer enquiries about formal face lifting. What I have noted is that many face lift surgeons are promoting “less aggressive” face lifts. These are variously named the “Mini Lift”, “S Lift”, “MACCS Lift”, “Weekend Lift” etc. Despite claims of being less aggressive, the fact remains that there is still (at the very least) a significant scar created in front of the ear that is going to be there for ever. Give that a scar is inevitable whether the lift is aggressive or not, I have had a look at the website and blog of a highly renown US facial plastic surgeon Dr. Joe Niamtu for some guidance.
I quote from his blog on the subject and link to it as below.
“I was recently asked by a major cosmetic publication to discuss my feelings on minimally invasive facelifts. Although I think they are a possible option for younger patients, I believe they are over used on patients that actually require a more comprehensive facelift and therefore lead to many unhappy patients that are left with a lesser result, all in an effort to attempt to shave a few days off of recovery. The following represents my thoughts on this issue”.
http://niamtu.wordpress.com/category/minimally-invasive-cosmetic-facial-surgery/
Dr. Niamtu was a star guest speaker at our recent annual conference in Hobart and was very well received. There is not doubt that he he is a very honest and well regarded senior colleague. Essentially he takes the view that if you are going to perform a surgical face lift and create an incision, dissection and an inevitable a scar, then it must be done thoroughly and without compromise. He seems not to be a fan of mini face lift lift techniques.
Dr. Niamtu is very polite about it but he suggests that most of these less than comprehensive face lifts are sub-optimal and ultimately leave many patients unhappy.
These are also the observations I have made at my clinic. In many circumstances I feel that we achieve more pleasing outcomes with our neck liposculpture, fat transfer graft and non-scar suture lifts techniques than many of the so named surgical “mini-lifts” that I see from other clinics. The big advantage with our method is that there are no scars (just almost imperceptible mini-stab incisions). Nevertheless it remains that advanced cases of facial aging may require formal and comprehensive face lifting.
However if you have not had the opportunity to observe a surgical face lift and have been persuaded that it is not such a big deal, have a look at the following link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gizZ_OyqwXg&feature=related