Board Certified Facial Plastic Surgeon Dr. Thomas Buonassisi places great importance on using a variety of surgical techniques that create a natural looking result and leave patients looking refreshed and reinvigorated. Vancouver facelift surgery is primarily designed to enhance and tighten the lower portions of the face, particularly the cheeks and jaw line. Some people who choose facelift surgery have a neck lift as well to tighten and rejuvenate the neck, eliminating excess tissue and “banding” or wrinkling that often forms as we age.
There are a variety of different types of facelift surgery. In our practise we have what we call a mini lift, a short incision facelift and a long incision facelift, and you can almost correlate that to a "small, medium and large" in terms of the results as well as the recovery time. The different sizes really refer to how much of the facial skin is elevated, and then how much of that facial skin can be tightened and trimmed with surgery.
How to decide which type of facelift is right for you?
With a long incision lift you have expose to more surface area, you can move the skin more and often mobilize the SMAS and the muscle layer more. For a patient who is looking for a more dramatic change or they have more age-related changes in the neck and jawline, a full facelift - also known as a long incision facelift - really provides the best results.
For a patient who is only looking for a little bit of tightening, or who doesn't necessarily want or need to go through a big procedure with a longer recovery period, they may benefit from a mini lift. With the mini lift a small amount of skin is removed, and small amount of the SMAS layer is elevated. The mini lift can look very natural because we are not removing too much skin, and not moving things too much.
When deciding which type of facelift is best for you, Dr. Buonassisi recommends looking at the options in terms of small, medium and large and really taking into consideration how much of a change you require based on your anatomy as well as how much downtime you can tolerate.
In our experience, well-informed patients are happy patients. While you may have an idea about which type of facelift surgery will be right for you, having a thorough consultation with a specialist beforehand is an absolutely essential part of the process. Consultations with Dr. Buonassisi are key to discussing your expectations and ensuring you have realistic goals for your result.Request a facelift consultation today.