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Facelift Surgery (Rhytidectomy)

The facelift (also spelt 'face lift' and scientifically known as a rhytidectomy) is one of the most popular cosmetic surgery procedures in the UK today. Thanks to growing media publicity about celebrities who have had the procedure, many patients are familiar with the concept of face lift surgery and now consider it an option as they get older and their face begins to lose its youthful shape.

 
 
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Facelift Surgery Information

    Different Types of Mini Facelift

    10th March 2011

    Facelift Surgery

    Adrian Richards of Aurora Clinics describes the different types of Mini Facelift procedure available and which technique is most suitable for you...   For more information or should you wish to book a FREE Consultation with our specialist plastic surgeon, please call us on 01844 214362.

    Transcript

    Different Types of Mini-Facelifts

     

     

    Hello, Adrian Richards here again. I’m a plastic and cosmetic surgeon and Surgical Director of Aurora Clinics based here in the United Kingdom. In this short video, I’m just going to talk a little bit about the different types of short scar or mini-facelifts. In a previous video, I’ve talked about the difference between full facelifts and mini-facelifts. Now, I’m going to be talking about specifically different types of mini-facelifts.

    So, a mini-facelift is categorised by the length of the scar, which is shorter than a traditional scar which goes in the temple, in front of the ear, and then behind the ear. Probably the simplest type of the mini-facelift is what’s called a Hollywood Facelift. In this technique, you have scar just purely in your temple here, hidden within the hair. Some of the tissue in this area is lifted up and sewn up. What it tends to do is just lift up like this, with a completely concealed scar in the hairline. This is a procedure that can be performed with local anaesthetic with good results. It’s going to give you a little elevation in this area. So, it will just tighten up this area. So, if you’ve just a little bit of early cheek descend, a bit of jowling, it could be for you.

    Thread lifts were popular. They’ve slightly fallen out of favour. Basically, in a thread lift, barbed threads, there’s a couple of different sorts, are inserted underneath the skin. They grip the tissue and then lift up. The problem with them is that number one, they’re painful. Number two, they can cause wrinkling, because you can imagine if you haven’t actually removed the skin, you can get folds created. They do recur. The jowling and the facial descent will recur because all it’s really being held up is by the internal stitches which are going to give after a certain amount of time. So that’s thread lifting, I have some experience of it, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a treatment.

    So really Hollywood Facelifts are the least invasive and you can go under local anaesthetic. Then we move on to what’s called the S Lift, which is a procedure, really invented about 15 years ago, which actually involves an incision in the hairline and down in front of the ear, and that elevates a little bit more. It elevates vertically and backwards, like that.

    The technique that I tend to use, which is a variation of the S Lift, is called the MACS Facelift. So, that’s M-A-C-S Facelift, and the MACS bit stands for the minimal access cranial suspension facelift. The minimal access basically just means a short scar. This scar here rather than the big scar. That’s the minimal access, the M-A bit. The C-S bit stands for cranial suspension. Cranial suspension is really just holding the deep tissues with stitches onto the very firm area here. The actual tissue underneath the skin in this temple area is very firm, very strong. What you do basically is put a stitch through there, down to the neck. Pull the neck up, like that, and then to the jowl areas to lift the jowl area up, and then to the cheek pad area to lift the cheek pad up. Those three stitches essentially elevate all the deep tissue. We tighten up all the deep tissue and put it back to where it was in its old position. That’s the MACS lift, the minimal access cranial suspension.

    There are other forms of short scar facelift which vary in what they do to the deeper tissue. The deeper tissue is called the SMAS, that’s S-M-A-S. I’m sorry about all these long words. The SMAS is the layer underneath the skin which really . . . skin is mobile, but the SMAS is much firmer in that region. So often, the SMAS can be plicated, which is basically sewn together. You can go underneath the SMAS and lift it up, there’s a layer, and stitch it back, or as I normally do I’ve actually used stitches just to lift it back into its normal position.

    So I hope that will make it slightly clearer. Short scar facelifts very, very successful in the right patient, 40s up really up to the age of mid-50s. Advantages are a very subtle rejuvenating appearance rather than a much more windswept look like some of the older facelift techniques. Short scar, which shouldn’t really be seen. You can wear your hair up afterwards because you won’t see any scars behind the neck there. I find, particularly the MACS facelift, very effective in treating people who just want to look better, fresher, rejuvenated versions of themselves without really going for the full facelift look.

    We’re talking in other videos about other types of facelifts. If you would like more information, please visit our website where you’ll be able to see lots of before and after photos, patient testimonials, people discussing their treatments. What we aim to do really is to give you an honest opinion, an honest view as to the pros and cons of these procedures to enable you to make an informed choice about the best one for you. Thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoy the rest in the series of videos.