Face Lift Surgery – The MACS Facelift – What is it & who is Suitable

Mr Adrian Richards, Leading Plastic Surgeon of Aurora clinics explains what the MACS Face Lift (Minimal Access Cranial Suspension). In this video he also explains who would be suitable for this procedure. For more information or should you wish to schedule a FREE Consultation with our specialist plastic surgeon, call us on 01844 214362

Face Lift Surgery – MACS Face Lift

Hello. My name’s Adrian Richards. I’m the Surgical Director of Aurora Clinics. Today I’m going to be talking about a particular form of face lift which is known as MACS face lift. That’s M-A-C-S facelift. What is a MACS face lift, what does it stand for?

MACS stands for a minimal access cranial suspension. So if I work through that one by one, minimal access means basically a short scar, which is a scar which is just in the hairline here in front of the ear, rather than the traditional facelift scar which goes behind the ear. So, minimal access means short scar without it ending behind the ear.

Cranial suspension really just means that the tissues of the face are secured by stitches. The deep tissues of the face, where you won’t see, underneath the skin are held in their original positions, their youthful positions, by permanent stitches which are anchored to the very firm tissue here in the temple. That’s the cranial area. So, cranial suspension really means anchoring these tissues to the firm tissue in the temple. That’s minimal access short scar cranial suspension is lifting and supporting the deep tissues to the cranial tissues.

Where did this technique come from and how does it vary from a normal face lift? It was really described about 10 years in Belgium, by a group in Belgium. It’s become very popular but only really for certain people and indications. It tends to be used for slightly younger patients, normally between the age of 45 and 55. These are patients who have got some facial descent but normally mid-facial and jowl descent.

The cheeks are slightly descended and the jowls are slightly descended, but importantly, the neck is not too loose. That’s very important, because what a MACS face lift does is essentially lift the cheek and jowl areas up more vertically like this. It restores the youthful contours to the lower eyelid, cheek, and jowl areas. But the slight caveat is it doesn’t really tighten the neck up that much. It has a slight effect on the neck but if you have got excess tissue in the neck, it’s not going to sort those out. That’s why it’s principally used on patients whose have early signs of facial aging, really from 45 to 55, because it’s really from 55 onwards that the neck starts to become slightly loose.

What are the advantages of a MACS lift? Some of the advantages are minimal scarring. The technique I use uses a short scar between the root of the ear, in the sideburn area of the skin and then a further scar up into the hairline. The traditional MACS lift uses a scar which actually goes in the hairline up towards the temple. I don’t do that because that can be very visible when you bring your hair back. With the scars that I use, you’ll be able to wear your hair back because you haven’t had that vertical scar in that area.

You will also have a scar in front of the ear, either going behind the nodule of the ear, the tragus it’s called, or in front of it just depending on whether you have a natural fold in that area. Then the scar goes a centimetre up behind the ear. The advantages over a traditional face lift are that it’s subtle, facial aging really sort of starts from the age of 40 onwards. It reverses those changes in a subtle, natural way rather than waiting until you’re slightly older and some of the changes are more irreversible.

So, subtle, it will make you look brighter, fresher, and I generally tell my patients it will make you look approximately eight years younger than you do now but in a subtle way. It can be combined with an eyelid surgery, but often my patients just elect to have a MACS face lift. The recovery period’s much quicker than a traditional face lift. Most of my patients are back to normal activities within approximately ten days.

In summary, I think the MACS face lift is a real advantage for selected people. Slightly younger people, who have the first signs of facial aging and are keen to reverse this in a gentle, subtle way with a relatively quick recovery period. Thank you very much for watching the video. If you’d like any more information about MACS face lifting or any other surgical techniques, please contact us either via the Aurora Clinic website, which is Aurora-Clinics.uk, or alternatively we would like to speak to you in the office and you can contact us by ringing 01844 214362. Thank you very much.