Early signs of ageing in the neck is the appearance of wrinkles and excess skin. Further ageing leads to the appearance of platysmal bands or webbing due to platysma muscle in the neck. The platysma muscle is an extension of the SMAS fascia in the face.
What is the neck lift procedure?
An extended incision from the lobule to the back of the back ear is made to expose and mobilize the skin and muscle bands in the neck. The neck is lifted by tightening the platysmal bands and removing excess skin.
How long is the Facelift procedure and the recovery time?
All the above surgical procedures may be done under local anaesthesia and sedation or with general anaesthesia as an option. The duration of surgery ranges from 4-6 hours depending on the extent of surgery required in one sitting. Head or neck bandage will be applied post-operatively and they can be removed after review the next day. The recovery period is about 1-2 weeks.
Supplementary Procedures for Facial Rejuvenation
Non-surgical or minimally invasive procedures like Laser Resurfacing or Micro Fat Grafting can be used to complement the facelift surgical procedures to improve the outcome of the surgery.
Laser Resurfacing
Fractional CO2 laser resurfacing with serum application is performed to stimulate collagen formation in the facial skin, giving it a clear and firm looking skin. It usually requires a series of 3-5 treatments at monthly intervals to see the improvement.
Micro-Fat Grafting
With ageing, the face has loss of volume due to atrophy of fat or soft tissue. Micro-fat grafting serves to improve the volume of the facial soft tissue. The procedure involves judicious harvesting of healthy fat cells and transferring them into the face to stimulate the regeneration of collagen and soft tissue.
Temple & Cheek Lift – Upper & Mid Facelift
Early signs of ageing usually appears around the eyes and cheek. The lateral brow starts to droop and the cheek complex starts to sag. There is associated anterior cheek flattening and appearance of the nasojugal groove. A cheek and temple lift is suitable to reposition the sagging cheek and periorbital tissue. A short scar method is used. The incision is made in the temple scalp extending down to the lobule. The skin flap is raised to expose the internal periorbital tissue and cheek tissue which are then suspended with internal sutures. The skin flap is lifted, tightened and excess skin removed before closure.
Cheek & Jowls Lift – Lower & Mid Facelift
With further ageing there is more severe sagging of the cheek and facial tissue leading to the appearance of jowls and accentuation of the naso-labial groove.
A similar pre-auricular incision extending from the temple scalp down to below and around the lobule is made. The cheek and lower face tissue, particularly the SMAS, is exposed by lifting the skin flap. The sagging cheek and jowls are lifted by tightening the SMAS with plication and partial resection and transposition. The skin is lifted and tightened by removing excess skin.
