A facelift and necklift are two surgical solutions to restore age-related volume loss, diminish wrinkles and fine lines, and recapture your youthful inner beauty. While they are effective as standalone procedures, together, a facelift and necklift can completely refresh your appearance – and your confidence.
However, to achieve your desired results, you might only need one of these procedures. Dr. Michael J. Yoo, a board-certified plastic surgeon, can help you understand and discern which procedure is best for you. Dr. Yoo has the skills and expertise necessary to help you achieve your ideal appearance. Just ask any of his previous patients! If you would like to see how Dr. Yoo can revitalize your face and neck, please schedule a personal consultation at our Beverly Hills or Orange County offices. Here, we will be able to answer any questions and perform an examination to advise the best course of treatment for a rejuvenated appearance. To reach our front desk directly, please call (949) 861-3340.
Contents
Before and After Photos
How Our Appearance Ages
Does your reflection look older than you feel? Fine lines have taken root around our mouth, eyes, and brow. Wrinkles have burrowed deep around our noses and formed parentheses encompassing our lips. Our skin is loose and sags down off our chin and jawline. The slenderness of our youthful neck is now replaced with droopy skin. While these signs of aging are common, they can be damaging to our self-confidence. Common signs of aging include:
Wrinkles & Fine Lines
In our youth, to keep our skin tight and unblemished, our body supplies ample amounts of collagen fibers to our dermis. Collagen – a fibrous, flexible protein – is the leading property to keep our skin tensile and flexible. However, through unprotected sun exposure, inadequate nutrition, and stress, the cells responsible for our collagen production weaken, leaving the existing collagen fibers unsupported in our later years.[1] As these fibers weather and age, they loosen, resulting in our skin’s inner structure being unable to remain tight. Over time, wrinkles form in common places of expression: the mouth, eyes, brow, and nasolabial folds.
Volume Loss
Another common sign of aging is volume loss in our face and neck. Our facial skeleton never really stops growing. It continues to expand horizontally and vertically well into our adulthood.[2] However, once our body’s collagen supply wanes, our bones weaken and slowly regress inwards. This process is called bone resorption and results in our facial features appearing sunken or hollow, especially around the cheeks and under the eyes. While facial volume loss does occur in some middle-aged men, it predominantly affects post-menopausal women as this process is accelerated by changes in estrogen levels.[3] However, in the neck – where bone resorption does not play a role – the layer of subcutaneous fat around the jawline can gradually deplete, resulting in the skin appearing thin and loose.[4]
Benefits of a Facelift
Many of our patients who have received a facelift say they love it because:
- Their loose skin was expertly tightened for natural-looking, younger contours.
- Troublesome wrinkles, fine lines, and folds that had gradually infiltrated their visage are smoothed away.
- The underlying muscles were tightened and repositioned for an overall lift and a restored facial structure.
- Now their appearance resembles how they feel on the inside: years younger than their age!
Benefits of a Necklift
Once they have fully healed, facelift patients that chose to complement their procedure with a necklift report:
- Skin that is tighter and better contoured to the shape of their neck
- Discreet scars that are invisible to the naked eye
- The loss of unwanted, droopy skin around their neck and jawline
- A stronger, clearer jawline
If you would like to see these benefits and more, please do not hesitate to schedule an initial consultation at either our Beverly Hills or Orange County offices.
Candidates
Because wrinkles can form during any period in life, there is no set age for a face or necklift. Typically, our patients are over the age of fifty, but many younger clients are seeking facial lifts as preventative measures against aging.
Personal Consultation
Board-certified in Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery and by the American Board of Otolaryngology, Dr. Michael J. Yoo’s knowledge, skills, and practical expertise have made him one of the most sought-after plastic surgeons in Southern California. Having apprenticed under many renowned plastic surgeons in the United States and South Korea, Dr. Yoo is committed to being a life-long student of his craft. And, after helping hundreds of patients achieve their desired appearance, Dr. Yoo is eager to sit down and listen to what your ideal facial aesthetics are. If you would like to learn more about Dr. Yoo and his practice, be sure to stay up to date on his blog!
Your Consultation
To begin your consultation, we will perform a brief physical examination and a new patient intake interview. Then, Dr. Yoo will want to learn about your areas of concern and the improvements you’d like to see. Dr. Yoo believes in treating the patient, not the problem, so he will work to gain an overarching sense of you as an individual. Many of the patients we see say they are interested in a facelift or neck lift but aren’t ready to “go under the knife”. For these patients, we recommend injectables like Botox or Juvéderm. Though these services can smooth out wrinkles and restore lost volume in many areas of the face and neck, the results are transitory and often require semiannual upkeep to maintain their effects.
Preparation
Whether you’ve chosen a facelift, necklift, or both, general preoperative guidelines include:
- Avoid nicotine because nicotine is known to constrict blood vessels which can inhibit the body’s natural healing response
- Cease taking any NSAIDs like aspirin, or blood-thinning medications as instructed. They can promote unnecessary bleeding or bruising during your procedure.
- Fill any prescriptions before the date of your surgery
- Designate a caregiver to drive you home and take assist you for the first few days
Your Procedure
On the day of your procedure, Dr. Yoo will review your treatment plan and answer any last-minute questions. Then, we will administer the appropriate anesthesia. A face and neck lift can be under either general or local anesthesia depending on what your surgical requirements are. During your procedure, Dr. Yoo will carefully make discreet incisions behind your ears and along your lower hairline along the back of the neck. He will undermine the tissue to lift the skin and access the structural layers of the face. The face’s musculature will be tightened and underlying tissues repositioned to restore youthful contours. Patients that have experienced natural volume loss in certain features may elect to undergo a fat transfer to boost certain contours of their face. To finish the procedure, Dr. Yoo will redrape the skin tautly over the newly positioned musculature and gently excise the overlapping skin. Lastly, he will suture the incisions closed. A face and neck lift can take from two to four hours to complete.
Recovery
After your procedure, your face and neck will be tender and sore. For the next couple of days, the treated areas will be swollen and may appear slightly bruised. This is normal and will subside shortly. We will wrap the treated areas in a compression garment to keep the alterations in place and help the body to continue healing. Between 7-10 days, we will remove the sutures during your follow-up consultation. We advise patients to take around two weeks off from work to focus solely on rest and recovery. At around the ten-day mark, you may resume wearing make-up and going out for light social activities. More strenuous activities should be avoided for a few more weeks. Please continue taking the prescribed medications for pain management and do not take any blood-thinning medications or supplements such as ibuprofen or aspirin.
Results
Once you have fully healed from your procedure, the wrinkles, fine lines, and loose skin that may have been a prominent feature to your appearance are now replaced with tighter skin, a more youthful expression, and a better-contoured facial profile. Dr. Yoo has taken the necessary steps to ensure you do not have a “windswept” look, but rather, your results look naturally younger with only subtle changes.
Cost
The cost of your facelift or necklift will vary depending on your personalized treatment plan. We will discuss and determine the price of your procedure during your consultation. If you would like to learn more about pricing, please visit our pricing page or call our front desk at (949) 861-3340.
References
- Bolke, L., Schlippe, G., Gerß, J., & Voss, W. (2019). A Collagen Supplement Improves Skin Hydration, Elasticity, Roughness, and Density: Results of a Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Blind Study. Nutrients, 11(10), 2494. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11102494
- Mendelson, B., & Wong, C.-H. (2012). Changes in the Facial Skeleton With Aging: Implications and Clinical Applications in Facial Rejuvenation. Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 36(4), 753–760. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00266-012-9904-3
- Windhager, S., Mitteroecker, P., Rupić, I., Lauc, T., Polašek, O., & Schaefer, K. (2019). Facial aging trajectories: A common shape pattern in male and female faces is disrupted after menopause. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 169(4), 678–688. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.23878
- DiBernardo, B. E. (2013). The aging neck: A diagnostic approach to surgical and nonsurgical options. Journal of Cosmetic and Laser Therapy. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/14764172.2012.758383?journalCode=ijcl20