What to Expect from a Chicago Face Lift?

face lift

What does a Chicago face lift involve?  What results can you expect? And how long will it take to recover after a face lift surgery?  These are some of the questions you may have if you’re considering a face lift and are at the stage where you’re just investigating what is involved and whether you really want to go through the procedure.  Well let’s look at some of the information you need to know about face lifts.

What is a Chicago Face Lift?

A face lift, or Rhytidectomy, is an invasive surgical procedure which lifts the skin and muscles of the mid to lower face, raising the facial tissue and tightening the skin so the overall effect is a younger looking face.  The signs of ageing on the face are often that the skin becomes lax, with loose skin emerging at the jowls, jawline and neck. There are cosmetic procedures that can help with these signs for a few months, but then the face will tend to go back to how it was, but a face lift surgery has much longer term effects.

Note that a face lift does not effect forehead wrinkles, crow’s feet or bags under the eyes because the skin cannot be tightened in these areas.  However there are other cosmetic techniques which can address these surgically, so if you have a face lift combined with other surgical procedures then you can drastically improve the look of your whole face.  A brow lift smooths the forehead, a Blepharoplasty tightens and lifts the eyebrows, and Botox and Dermal fillers address frown lines, crow’s feet and depleted facial volume anywhere on the face.

What Happens During a Face Lift Surgery?

During a face lift surgery you will be under local or IV anesthesia for the duration of the procedure which can take anywhere from two to four hours to complete.  An incision is made from the temple, down in front of the ear to behind the ear on both sides of the face. The skin is then separated from the underlying tissues.  An unwanted tissue or fatty tissue is removed and then the muscles are repositioned and the skin tightened before fine sutures are applied to keep the face in place again to heal.

As you can imagine some scarring will be seen but a good plastic surgeon will leave very fine scars and these will be in obscure locations on the face so shouldn’t be noticed by anyone.

Recovery After a Face Lift

Recovering after a face lift can take two to three weeks and bruising and swelling are expected as the whole face heals.  There is often a moderate level of discomfort which can be managed with pain killers. You may also experience some numbness in areas of the face during the healing process but this will dissipate over the following weeks.  Bandages are wrapped around the surgical sites for several days to reduce swelling and keep the tissue I place while it heals.