Facelifts in Houston, TX
Rhytidectomy is the technical term for repositioning tissues of the face and neck, commonly called a facelift. A facelift restores the contours and appearance of a more youthful or fresher face, contours that have been distorted by gravity pulling and loosening tissues over time.
Many areas of the face are improved: sagging, loose tissues of the midface, deep folds of loose skin at the sides of the nose and mouth, jowls or loss of definition of the jawline and excess fat or loose skin causing loss of definition in the neck area.
Bruce K Smith, MD, will discuss your areas of concern during your consultation and demonstrate the degree of correction you can expect in each area. To schedule a consultation for a facelift in Houston, call (713) 659-2700 today.
A facelift does not stop the clock. It simply “resets” it. How long a facelift lasts depends on many factors, including the characteristics of your tissues. You’ll notice some loosening within a few months following Rhytidectomy, but you may never regain the degree of your original deformities. Many patients will request a less extensive tightening procedure in 7-10 years to maintain the best possible appearance.
Limitations
A facelift is often combined with other procedures to simultaneously correct other areas of the face, such as the forehead or eyelid areas, and give you a balanced, more youthful appearance of the entire face.
Facelift procedures can be limited by certain characteristics of your tissues. Some examples are:
- Thick, heavy, oily skin.
- Sun-damaged skin.
- Excessive fatty tissue.
- Changes in the tissue from previous procedures.
The goal of a facelift is to make you look as good as possible for your age, not necessarily to make you appear twenty years younger.
Dr. Smith will discuss specific limitations with you (if there are any) at the time of your consultation. We have techniques available to deal with most limiting factors.
What are the Risks of a Facelift?
Rhytidectomy procedures involve more risk in smokers. Nicotine causes constriction of blood vessels that supply the skin, reducing blood flow and increasing the risk of skin loss. If you are a smoker, Dr. Smith will make specific recommendations to you to reduce those risks.
If you have hypertension or high blood pressure, it must be properly controlled prior to surgery to reduce the risk of bleeding. We will coordinate this with your internist or family physician.
There is a very small risk of impairing nerves that control facial movement during Rhytidectomy, depending on the extent of the procedure necessary to correct your deformities. Dr. Smith will discuss this in more detail with you during your consultation.
Other risks common to all surgical procedures, such as bleeding, infection and scar tissue formation, occur in a very small percentage of cases. We will provide more detailed information about these and other rare risks in our written materials and encourage you to discuss any concerns you may have during your consultation.
The Operation
Incisions for a face lift are carefully concealed within the hair at the temples, in skin creases in front of and behind the ears, and in the hair behind the ears. Dr. Smith will discuss specific incision locations with you during your consultation.
To reposition your facial tissues, skin, and deeper tissues of the face are first very carefully mobilized. The deeper tissues and skin are then repositioned in an upward and backward direction to reposition and retighten them to a more satisfactory location.
In the neck area, banding or malposition of neck muscles is corrected to provide better support and optimal contour to the neck.
In the face and neck areas, excess or malpositioned fatty tissue is removed or sculpted using small suction tubes to further improve the result.
After redraping the skin and soft tissues, excess tissue is removed and the incisions carefully closed.
Recovery In General
Recovery from plastic surgical procedures is generally very rapid, and varies slightly from person to person.
All of your incisions will be carefully closed with stitches placed beneath the skin, so there’s no chance of your having “railroad track” type marks, but rather very fine line scars. You’ll be able to wash your hair the next day. All exposed or visible sutures will be removed in 4 to 5 days. The remaining sutures or staples that are concealed in the hair are removed in 7 to 10 days.
You’ll feel some tightness in the neck area following surgery. This assures that you’ll have the best possible long-term result. Most of the tight feeling resolves in the first two weeks.
The Stages Of Recovery
Our patients usually want to know about four stages of recovery: hospitalization time, when swelling or bruising is resolved, when they’ll be able to return to work or social activity, and when they can return to full aerobic or strenuous exercise.
Hospitalization time: Dr. Smith prefers that you spend one night in the hospital following an extensive facelift. By keeping you very quiet and sedated, and having someone to care for you, we can assure the least possible swelling and bruising and the fastest possible recovery with the least risk of complications.
- Bruising and swelling resolve: 5-10 days
- Return to work, social activity: 10-21 days
- Aerobic or strenuous activity: 14-21 days
We encourage immediate return to full normal activity immediately. Just don’t do any type of strenuous exercise that would push your pulse over 100 for about two to three weeks. Any aerobic activity that raises your pulse above 100 also raises your blood pressure and could make you bleed.