Deep plane facelift and necklift
As a plastic surgeon who regularly uses the deep plane facelift and necklift in Beirut, I believe that no injectable treatment or non-invasive procedure can accomplish what a good face and neck lift can. The results are more natural, longer-lasting, visibly noticeable, and often more cost-effective.
How does facial aging occur?
Many studies have shown that facial aging is not primarily caused by volume loss, as many might think (thus not adequately treated by adding volume), but by the relaxation of the ligaments and tissue radial expansion, these structures that anchor the skin and muscle to bone and deep fascia. When you're young, these ligaments are taut, keeping the skin and fat firm against the bone. Over time, with movement, aging, and gravity, the ligaments relax, causing everything they once supported to descend on the face, and tissues to expand away from the bony framework.
How does a facelift and necklift actually work?
In a face and neck lift, I have found that repositionning the fat compartments as well as the muscle layer (SMAS) at their previous positions (recreating the function of the ligaments), induces changes so natural they are usually not attributed to surgery, but rather a good daily skincare routine or being very well-rested.
A deep plane facelift repositions and tightens what has descended, which is not just skin. In fact, the fat and mimetic muscles are in a condensed resistant layer called SMAS. The deep plane, which is beneath the SMAS allows the release of the retaining ligaments that hold the skin and SMAS and allows the composite skin–subcutaneous tissue–SMAS flap to move together with the objective is repositioning with less reliance on skin tension.
Therefore, scars from this procedure tend to heal exceptionally well without widening as the SMAS takes up all the tension.
Neck correction may require separate submental work, platysma treatment, fat management and posterior skin redraping. The required components depend on the individual anatomy.
What is the ideal age for a facelift?
There is no ideal age for a facelift. In my practice, there’s usually an ideal timing: when the jowls (skin and fat under the mouth hanging below the jaw) and the marionette lines start to show. This is the first sign of aging that cannot be treated with injectables.
Facelifts and necklifts normally treat
Generalized skin laxity
Jowls - marionette lines
Nasolabial fold (to a lesser extent)
I usually associate a facelift with a neck lift to treat:
Excess skin laxity and fat in the neck
Loss of definition in the jawline and the neck
Vertical platysmal bands
Facelifts and necklift don’t usually treat
Brow position, eyelids and perioral changes.
Skin texture
Pigmentation
Fine lines