Facelift surgery will not affect your smile when performed appropriately. You can help to ensure the most pleasing and reliable results by choosing a board-certified plastic surgeon to perform your procedure.
Normal Smiling Should Return After Two Weeks
The full facelift impact will take a bit longer, from six months to a year. However, your natural smile should return in short order. Lip and mouth asymmetries after a facelift should resolve with time.
The corner of the mouth/lower lip is pulled down by the depressor anguli oris muscle, which is innervated by the marginal mandibular nerve. This nerve is one of the branches most commonly weakened after a facelift. Usually movement will recover in 6 to 12 weeks, although complete recovery may take longer.
Motor nerve damage affects the movement of the face. Damage to the nerve that moves the lower lip is most common and can lead to a crooked smile, though this only occurs in less than 1% of patients. Full facial movement usually returns within a few weeks.
Beautiful, natural results. While a facelift is considered an invasive surgery, it provides some of the most age-rewinding results possible. Having a sleeker, tighter visage can shave a decade off your appearance. Yes, a facelift will change the look of your face but not the appearance of your unique features.
Research by Medical Accident Group found that 65% of people they polled regretted their surgery, though 28% were very happy with its results. According to the poll, 83% of people who had had plastic surgery wouldn't consider having any form of cosmetic procedure again.
The most dramatic yet natural-looking results occur with a full SMAS facelift with the incisions on either side of the face beginning at the temple and extending down and around the ear to the lower scalp. These incisions are well hidden within the hairline.
Facelift recovery time
You should look and feel normal after 2 – 4 weeks. Keep in mind that facelift surgery cannot stop natural aging, so we encourage patients to continue to take care of their skin and make healthy lifestyle choices.
Why? When the facelift is performed, the skin is tightened and it can flatten out the jowls because the skin is tighter. However, over time as the skin relaxes, the full fatty jowls will restretch out the skin and the jowls will reappear. Weight loss prior to face lift surgery is very important for these people.
Fortunately, bad facelifts can often be corrected in a procedure that is known as facelift revision surgery. This can only be performed once your face is fully healed and you have recovered from your original procedure – and this is usually a minimum of 6 months from the date of your first surgery.
Windblown Look: caused when the surgeon stretches the facial skin beyond a natural point, making the face look pulled back and unnatural. Visible Scars: poor technique could lead to visible scars near the hairline or the ear, which can be hard to cover with makeup.
Patients were highly satisfied with their decision to undergo a facelift (90.5 ± 15.9). On average, patients felt they appeared 6.9 years younger than their actual age.
In some cases a facelift can be done early in life but, in most cases, a facelift works best for people who are in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, when the signs of aging begin to appear more prominently on your face. Those deep lines, wrinkles, fine lines, and sagging skin you see are indicators of the aging process.
AVOID BENDING OVER OR LIFTING heavy things for one week. Besides aggravating swelling, this may raise the blood pressure and start hemorrhage. AVOID HITTING OR BUMPING YOUR FACE, HEAD AND NECK. It is wise not to pick up small children and you should sleep alone for one week after your operation.
Facelift surgery alone will not change the appearance of the lips. It has little to no effect on the skin around the lips. Patients will usually try lip injections and fillers before undergoing surgery.
Technically, there is no limit or “magic number” when it comes to how many facelifts can be performed. But as we mentioned, we want to make sure your results remain as natural as possible. Too many surgeries can make your face appear “pulled” or “worked on,” which is not always desirable.
You must wear the chin strap continuously for the first two weeks after surgery except while eating and showering/cleaning incisions. The strap helps fight the forces of gravity immediately after surgery and helps improve any swelling.
Many patients develop aging after a facelift in the same way and areas that they developed facial aging initially. Lines will develop around the nose and mouth, the cheeks will lose some of their fullness, and the jawline will eventually soften.
There is no age at which an individual is too old for any cosmetic enhancement, so long as they are healthy enough to undergo the rigors of surgery, anesthesia and recovery from the procedure.
Your face likely will be bruised and swollen. The swelling may get worse before it gets better, but it will probably go away in 1 to 2 weeks. After a few days you may get some bruises on your neck and chest. This is caused by gravity, which pulls the excess blood and bruising downward.
1 Week Post-Op
During the first week after your facelift, you can expect swelling and bruising around your lower face, ears and neck. Swelling may be uneven, so don't be alarmed if your results don't look perfectly symmetrical at this stage.
Scars after a facelift are visible but inconspicuous, and generally not noticeable unless examined closely. The facelift procedure scar starts at the sideburn and follows the contour of the ear, extending along the front of the ear and continuing under the earlobe and behind the ear, into the hairline.