Facelift
Aging is an inevitable part of life. As we grow and mature through the years, those changes can also be reflected in the appearance of the face. While the wisdom and experience that comes with age cannot be changed, you do have the option to reduce the visible appearance of aging and restore the youthful vitality of your face. A facelift or rhytidectomy is a plastic surgery procedure that can help to restore a youthful glow and the natural beauty of your facial skin.
Your face is the first thing people see when they meet you and is the defining characteristic of your physical appearance. A facelift at Cold Spring Plastic Surgery can help you look your best at any age and achieve your best look and a feeling of pride whenever you glance in the mirror. Our exceptional Long Island plastic surgeons produce beautiful, natural results that restore your own unique and youthful appearance.
How Can a Facelift Work For You?
A facelift is the one single cosmetic procedure that can do the most to improve, revive and rejuvenate the appearance of your face. Also known as a rhytidectomy, this procedure removes loose skin that leads to facial lines and wrinkles, sculpts the jawline and cheeks, lifts and tightens the deep layers of the face. The soft tissues are contoured to provide an overall appearance of youth, health and vitality.
At Cold Spring Plastic Surgery, our Huntington Long Island plastic surgeons can work with you to identify your goals for a facelift procedure. Our plastic surgeons are skilled in the most advanced techniques and procedures, as today’s facelifts are specially designed for a beautiful, natural appearance that brings your best look to the forefront. Your facelift procedure will be tailored to meet your goals and help you achieve your aesthetic vision for your face.
How Is a Facelift Performed?
Depending on a patient’s needs, a facelift can be performed under local anesthesia, under deep sedation or under general anesthesia. The type of sedation that is best suited for an individual person will be made by the plastic surgeons in light of the patient’s current health situations and the treatment plan for the procedure. Most facelift procedures take approximately three to four hours.
During a facelift, incisions are made around the edges of the face and behind the ears into the hairline. The skin is separated from the deeper tissues, allowing access to these layers to be lifted and tightened, providing a durable and lasting result for this procedure. Your Suffolk County plastic surgeon will remove the excess skin and then gently redrape it, providing a soft and natural result without looking “pulled too tight.’ Fat grafting can also be used to augment and enhance areas that have suffered volume loss. This overall restructures the contour of the face into a more youthful shape.
Who is a Good Candidate for a Facelift?
Patients who are in good health and desire significant improvements with natural results can choose to have a facelift procedure. There are a number of signs of aging that can be dramatically changed by a facelift, including the appearance of sagging and loose skin around the jawline, jowling, loss of volume in the face, the development of deep wrinkles and facial expression lines, loss of elasticity in the skin and an overall asymmetric or sagging facial appearance.
Your Long Island plastic surgeon will design your facelift procedures to meet your specific aesthetic concerns with the lowest amount of risk and the shortest recovery period. The procedure will work to restore youthfulness and balance to your face with a natural, vibrant appearance and look.
What is Recovery Like After a Facelift?
Just like every facelift is uniquely designed for a specific patient, every patient’s recovery period is also unique. Your surgeon will lay out specific guidelines and instructions to help you ensure a positive, successful recovery period after your rhytidectomy.
Following the facelift procedure, you can expect some pain and discomfort that is manageable with over-the-counter and prescription pain treatment. Cold Spring Plastic Surgery will provide you with detailed recovery guidelines, which may or may not include the use of antibiotic ointments, a headwrap or compression, and other treatments.
You may have some swelling around the eyelids and other areas of the face, and you may experience muscle weakness for the first two days after the procedure. The overall recovery period can last up to eight weeks, but you should be able to return to your everyday activities and your workplace within one to two weeks.
After a facelift, you can expect bruising to remain for one to two weeks and swelling to remain for one to three weeks. Exercise routines can be resumed only after speaking with your surgeon first. There will be some recovery symptoms that may remain for some time, including a feeling of facial tightness, numbness around the ears and some secondary healing that continues for several months beyond the initial procedure.
A facelift is a long-lasting procedure that can make a permanent change to your face. You can expect the results of a rhytidectomy to last for approximately 10 years.
Frequently Asked Questions
Make a Consultation for a Facelift
The skilled plastic surgeons at Cold Spring Plastic Surgery will be happy to discuss your thoughts about a facelift and how this procedure can work for you. Call us or use our online form to make an appointment at our convenient Huntington office in Suffolk County on Long Island. We work with patients across the country and around the world on a daily basis, and we look forward to speaking with you about how our plastic surgeons can help you achieve your aesthetic goals.