Using modern techniques, it is very straight forward to achieve natural results with facelifts. Many patients will tell me they can always tell when someone has had a facelift. I gently correct them and inform them that you can always tell when someone has had a poor facelift. When someone has had a good facelift, it makes them appear as though they have aged well and others cannot tell. I often show my patients before and after pictures to prove this point.
The goal, I explain to them, should not be to look like they have never aged. Putting a 30 year-old face on a 60 year-old body never looks natural. Having said that, some patients who are 60 may look closer to 45 or 50 years old and yet others may appear in their 70s. There is a wide spectrum of ‘normal’ appearances for a 60 year-old and our goal is to bring the patient back to the younger portion of that spectrum, while still looking natural. In order to achieve this, you need to understand how the body and the mind perceive what constitutes a young-looking face.
When you meet someone and look at them, subconsciously you form an opinion of the person’s approximate age. This is done without thought and occurs almost immediately based on our years of accumulated knowledge of what people look like at a given age. What we are noticing is not the tightness of the person’s skin. If you look at a young person, they do not have tight skin. What you are actually noticing is the shape of their face. Young people have a fullness and volume in their cheeks and they do not have jowls. Read more…
