Dr. Zhuravsky’s introduction to his facelift videos and website content. The facelift is perhaps one of the most popular and established cosmetic plastic surgery procedures. It has evolved greatly through the decades giving surgeons the ability to provide signifiant rejuvenation while maintaining a natural appearance. However, over marketing has created some confusion living patients concerned about choosing the best options. Dr. Z focuses on providing patients with information to help them avoid pitfalls and to achieve the best results possible.
The answer as to who is a good candidates depends on a few factors. The first is of course to learn if a facelift will improve your appearance in the way that you imagine. For this, you would consult with a surgeon, express your concerns, and have them explain how and if a facelift will resolve those issues. If the benefits of a facelift fit your expectations, the next thing to learn about are the risks and personal investment (recovery, time off, limitations etc). It then becomes your decision as you determine if the benefits are worth the surgery and financial costs to you.
Facelift may seem like a scary procedure that would require a very long and hard recovery. However, it’s not as bad as most people imagine. The first week is when patient’s experience the most amount of swelling and discomfort. At the 7 – 10 day mark, most patients are socially acceptable and even ready to fly home by airplane. There is ofc course still swelling and the incisions may be more obvious (or not), but this settles nicely during the next 6 weeks. While there are restrictions on certain activities during this time period, patents are able to return to majority of their “non-strenuous” daily activities as soon as 7 – 10 days. It is important to keep in mind that every patient is unique and so you should consult with your surgeon on these matters, following their post operative instructions.
A common question and misunderstanding that patients express regarding facelift surgery is that it involves “pulling the face muscles”. While we do deep plane facelifts to achieve the highest quality lifts, we are not technically moving the muscles as this would have a negative impact of facial expression. The SMAS layer contains fat pads that tend to descend with time, and this is our main target layer. In deep plane facelifts, we separate the SMAS from the muscles in order to avoid distorting them. However, in the neck the SMAS continues as the platysma muscle, which we do use to achieve a youthful and elegant neckline. So in the neck, we are pulling the muscle layer, but in the face we are trying to avoid distorting the muscles of facial expression.
