Savannah Facelift
Facial wrinkles, crow's feet around the eyes and looser skin are all the initial indications that a person is starting to age. These aging indicators, when taken all together, make your face seem much less vigorous and it is noticeable to anyone who knew you when you were younger. Even though you may feel great, other people begin to see you as tired and worn, because that is how your face makes you look. A plastic surgery facelift procedure can reverse these obvious signs of aging and make you look years younger.
Facelifts are very different from patient to patient, depending on their individual needs, but all of them seek to pick up the slack in your facial skin and reduce fine lines and wrinkling. By removing fat and skin on the face and neck, a facelift can make a person look much younger. The general method used is to make incisions around the ear and hairline, remove excess tissue, then tighten up what remains. Typically a local anaesthetic is used so the patient does not experience pain during the procedure.
Here is an easy way to tell if you are a candidate for a facelift. First sit on the edge of your bed and hold a mirror up in front of your face. Take notice of any areas of skin around your jaw that seem to sag. Also look for sagging skin in the neck area and heavy folds of skin on either side of your nose and mouth.
The next step is to lay your head back on the mattress, still holding the mirror in front of you, and even press your head a little into the mattress. You may notice changes in the definition in your jaw and neck area and a reduction of sagging on either side of your nose and mouth. People who see a fairly big difference when they do this are usually good candidates for having a facelift. A surgeon will also consider other things like how high the quality of your skin is and if there is damage from the sun or smoking, and how much sagging there is.
What a facelift will not do, however, is improve the appearance of your eyelids or forehead. But you can get a forehead lift and eyelid surgery to address these areas at the same time you are having a facelift. If the top of your face looks ok to you, it may look older by comparison after the facelift has improved the lower part.
You may start your recovery looking like a mummy right after surgery, so be prepared for that possibility. This is because some surgeons wrap the head and neck with gauze, leaving only the front of the face exposed. But the recovery is not usually very painful and the bandages and stitches are usually removed during the initial week after surgery. Bruising and puffiness should subside within two to three weeks, and you will want to avoid any strenuous activity during this time. For most people, two weeks off of work is enough and they go back still showing a little bruising and swelling. You should not use hot tubs or go to public pools or swim in the ocean for at least four weeks after your surgery.
There have been several procedures developed recently which are less invasive that facelift surgery. These techniques don't have the same kind of results as surgical facelifts and they involve a variety of indirect treatment methods. Radio emitters, lasers and topical creams are examples of these new techniques, and some can tighten your facial skin without the need for surgery. They also have the advantage of shorter recovery times and less chance for complications. These new methods work the best on younger patients who have just begun to show signs of aging.
After many years of looking at facelifts as only for women, men now make up almost a quarter or more of the facelifts done each year. This change is understandable when you think of how the world, now more than ever, places such an emphasis on external appearance. Changing one's appearance to look younger can have immediate and sweeping positive effects on a person's social and business life.
