Facelift: What to Look for in Your Doctor

Posted September 09, 2016

Facelift surgery is designed to alleviate sagging facial tissues and bring back your youthful appearance. This procedure can remove saggy skin and deep wrinkles as well as lift and tighten your facial features and is one of the most effective options for facial rejuvenation.

How to Find Your Ideal Facelift Surgeon

First and foremost, it is absolutely essential that your doctor is board-certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery or ABPS. Certification from the International Society of Plastic Surgeons or ISPS is also a plus. The main idea is to ensure your chosen doctor has the right expertise and knowledge on how the body behaves with surgical cosmetic augmentations. Board certification from these internationally acclaimed organizations ensures that the doctor was peer reviewed and received the highest standards of training in physician practice and plastic surgery.

Results After Facelift

Facelift is an effective time machine procedure that can make a patient drastically look younger. However, results vary from patient to patient on a case by case basis. This means that during your consultation, it is important to ask your doctor for before and after photos of previous patients that had a similar case as you. The more pictures he has available, the more experienced the doctor will be so pay attention to the quantity of the pictures as well as how similar the cases are to yours. The photos will speak for themselves and will allow you to better gauge what type of results the doctor can provide.

Getting Feedback from Real Patients

The buck doesn’t stop after you see the photos. In order to find the most ideal doctor and improve your chances of having a successful operation and recovery, it is important to get as much details as you can. Looking at patient reviews from third party websites like Yelp, which make it nearly impossible for businesses to manipulate reviews, allows you to get a firsthand account on what to expect from your potential doctor.

Another way is to ask your friends and family and see if anyone has gotten a facelift. If you’re lucky, you can get a referral to a doctor directly from someone in your social circle and have a trustworthy source telling you what to expect from the procedure. Some doctors will even allow you to speak privately with one of their previous patients so don’t be afraid to ask during consultation. Remember, you are risking your health with any surgery, so it is essential to keep asking questions even to the point of redundancy. In this case, it is much better to be safe than sorry.

Types of Facelifts

There are different types of facelift techniques available to treat varying degrees of saggy skin and wrinkles:

Deep Plane Facelift – Considered an advanced rhytidectomy, this technique targets the deeper layers of facial tissue and muscle and allows for a greater degree of rejuvenation. It is also the most extensive procedure in the list and requires the longest downtime for recovery after the operation.
Short Scar Facelift – The opposite of the deep plane technique, this approach still offers the benefits of a facelift while keeping the incisions as minimal as possible which makes it less detectable. Some patients with extensive loose skin may not qualify so be sure to ask your doctor.
Mid-Facelift – This uses an identical approach to deep plane facelift but this variation focuses on the midsection of the face. Central face rejuvenation can remove heavy eye bags and nasolabial folds which are more commonly referred to as “smile lines.”

On average, a facelift procedure costs between $6,000 to $12,000 dollars but, just like with any plastic surgery, prices can jump wildly depending on the location, the doctor’s expertise and how much media coverage they are getting.

What Questions to Ask Before Your Facelift Surgery?

Your consultation is a crucial step in your journey so it is important to have questions prepared before you meet with your doctor. Here’s a few to get you started: