When most people think of facelift surgery, they picture smoother skin and a more youthful appearance. While those are certainly key benefits, the impact a facelift has on your life goes far beyond the surface. Modern facelift techniques can help restore facial harmony, improve physical comfort, complement other anti-aging treatments, and support healthy emotional well-being.
What is a Facelift?
A facelift, or rhytidectomy, is a surgical procedure designed to reduce visible signs of aging in the face and neck. As you get older, your muscle tone diminishes, skin loses its elasticity, and facial fat shifts, causing deep creases, loose skin, sagging, and jowls to appear.
Facelifts are designed to address these concerns by lifting and tightening tissues beneath your skin and removing excess skin. By going deeper than the surface of your skin, facelifts can create a firmer, smoother appearance to help you look refreshed without sacrificing your natural features.
Restoring Facial Harmony and Balance
As you age, you might begin to notice your skin starting to sag, your jawline becoming less defined, volume in your face starting to disappear, and folds deepening across your face. Although these changes occur naturally over time, they can disrupt your natural symmetry and balance, causing you to appear tired, droopy, or even angry.
If you are beginning to notice these changes and want to address them, facelift surgery can help to achieve a natural look that restores harmony to your face. Advanced facelift surgeries go deeper than just tightening your skin; they reposition the muscles and connective tissues underneath. By addressing the structural changes before tightening the skin, your surgeon can help redefine the contours of your face without causing a “pulled” artificial look.
The most significant aesthetic benefit of a facelift is the restoration of facial balance. Facelift surgery brings your facial features into better proportion by smoothing your neck, lifting your cheeks, and redefining your jawline. It is important to remember that the goal of a facelift is to refresh your face instead of completely changing how you look, allowing you to feel like your appearance matches how you feel inside.
Enhancing Daily Functionality and Comfort
Facelift surgery is often viewed as a purely cosmetic procedure, but there are many patients who undergo facelifts to improve their daily functionality and comfort. As the skin on your face gradually loses its elasticity, it can begin to sag around your lower face, neck, and jawline. This excess skin can cause issues such as:
- Chafing during physical activity
- Irritation from clothing and accessories around your neck
- Difficulty shaving or applying makeup
- In the case of droopy eyelids, vision impairment
Thankfully, these issues can be alleviated through facelift surgery, where excess tissue is tightened or removed. After your skin is smoothed and repositioned, it is easier to stay comfortable while wearing jewelry or clothing around your neck or face. Shaving also feels better, as excess skin can make it feel like your skin is being pulled while shaving.
Supporting Overall Anti-Aging Goals
Combating signs of aging typically involves a combination of methods to help you achieve your desired results, and facelift surgery can be a powerful tool in your efforts. In fact, facelift surgery is most effective when combined with other treatments.
Surgery handles structural changes across your face, but it doesn’t treat surface-level changes like wrinkles, fine lines, textural changes, or uneven skin tone. Other anti-aging treatments can be used along with facelift surgery to create a comprehensive rejuvenation plan.
Many patients at the Lett Center elect to combine their facelift surgery with non-surgical treatments like:
- Laser resurfacing: Precision laser technology is used to gently remove damaged outer layers of skin while stimulating collagen production deep within the dermis layer of your skin. Laser resurfacing can be used to treat wrinkles, fine lines, age spots, uneven tone, sun damage, and acne scars.
- Dermal fillers: Dermal fillers are gel-like substances that are injected beneath the skin to lift, plump, and smooth targeted areas. This is a popular treatment because it is a minimally invasive way to restore volume and smooth wrinkles.
- Advanced skincare treatments: Treatments like Chemical peels, ZO® Skin Health products, medical-grade facials, and Hydrafacials® can treat a variety of skin concerns from fine lines to discoloration. After assessing your skin, our aesthetics team can help you find the right combination of treatments and products to meet your skin goals.
- Microneedling: Fine, sterile needles on a specialized device are used to create controlled micro-injuries and stimulate elastin and collagen production. Microneedling can address concerns such as stretch marks, fine lines, wrinkles, acne or surgical scars, uneven skin tone, enlarged pores, and skin laxity.
- Botox: As one of the most widely used cosmetic treatments, Botox is an injectable neurotoxin that relaxes targeted facial muscles. It is commonly used to soften the appearance of wrinkles caused by repetitive expressions, including forehead lines, crow’s feet, frown lines, and more.
By layering different treatments with a facelift, you can address structural and superficial signs of aging to achieve a youthful look with healthier skin. Following facelift surgery, your doctor may recommend specific treatments or skincare routines to help extend the longevity of your facelift results. By having regular maintenance treatments and committing to a skincare routine, you can achieve a more complete and satisfying transformation over time.
Emotional and Psychological Benefits of Feeling Rejuvenated
The impact of facelift surgery goes deeper than just the physical changes. When you look in the mirror and see a reflection that matches how you feel, it can create an emotional impact that gives you a boost in self-esteem, confidence, and overall mood.
Aging on the outside can create a disconnect between your appearance and how you feel on the inside. Sagging skin, deep creases, and tired eyes can make you appear more tired and drained when you actually feel vibrant and active. Facelift surgery can help reconnect your external appearance with how you feel internally. When you have the confidence from looking good, you might notice that you are more:
- Confident in professional environments
- Comfortable in social settings
- Enthusiastic about personal relationships
Patients who undergo facial rejuvenation often report improvements in their emotional health, such as reduced self-consciousness, a more positive outlook on aging, and greater satisfaction with their appearance. They also find they have a renewed sense of motivation for different aspects of their lives, such as getting back to beloved hobbies, taking care of their health, or even just updating their wardrobe.
At the Lett Center, we’ve seen firsthand how a facelift can be a turning point for patients. We have seen patients reclaim their confidence and enjoy the emotional freedom that comes with feeling good in their own skin.
Conclusion
Facelift surgery goes beyond cosmetic fixes and transforms nearly every aspect of a person’s life. While it does restore your appearance to a more youthful state, the benefits go deeper than just redefined contours and tightened skin. From easing physical discomfort caused by excess skin to boosting confidence, enhancing emotional wellness, and supporting long-term anti-aging goals, a facelift can help patients feel more comfortable, capable, and aligned with their inner selves.
Exploring Facelift Surgery at The Lett Center
Discover the expert care and personalized treatments at the Lett Center. If you’re ready to explore how facelift surgery can enhance more than just your looks, we invite you to schedule a consultation and take the first step toward a refreshed, confident, and balanced you.