home › blog
Category : Facelift / Tuliplift, : Fat Transfer
Saturday, March 22. 2008
What Should You Get With a Facelift?
I believe that a facelift should achieve several specific goals. It should remove excess skin, remove excess fat from the neck and jowl area, replace lost volume in the cheek and jawline, tighten the muscles of the neck and face, and refresh the skin.
Lets discuss each of these seperately...
1) Removal of excess fat in the jowl and neck area
This is often genetic but does have an environmental component. I have patients who are quite thin, have not lost and gained a lot of weight over the years, and still have pockets of fat in the jowl and neck area. Once these fatty pockets are removed the skin can bounce back. The younger and the less sun-damaged the skin is, the more likely it will shrink back. I use very fine cannulas (1.5 to 2.0 mm) and tumescent liposuction to reduce these fatty deposits.
2) Volume replacement
The nasolabial folds tend to become deeper and cheek bones are lost with age. I use the harvested living fat from the neck and jowl to replace the lost volume.
3) Removal of exess skin
Excess skin needs to be removed but the face should never look pulled or "wind blown"
4) Tightening of the muscle
For a facelift to last the SMAS needs to be plicated and the muscle tightened. Please look at my previous blogs for an explanation on SMAS.
5) Finally, the fine lines and discoloration of the skin needs to be addressed.
Most patients who need a facelift also have sundamage, brown spots, fine lines around the eyes, and occasional benign growths. These are lasered or peeled 2 weeks after surgery to refresh the skin.
At Forever Young our patients also take advantage of O2 Facials, Ultrasound treatments, and lymphatic drainage to help the healing process.
COMMENTS:
Dear patient,
I am delighted that you have shown an interest in out trademarked Tuliplift procedure. As you may have seen in our video the Tuliplift does address the jowl and neck area. The excess fat is harvested from these areas, concentrated (spun down), and injected via fine needles (just like Collagen, Restylane, or Juvederm) into the nasolabial folds.
I am not too familiar with the Lifestyle lift but am happy to see that other surgeons are embracing the concept of cosmetic surgery without general anesthesia.
The Tuliplift procedures is performed only by me and includes a lot more than what you get with other
minilifts:
1) Liposuction of neck and jowls
2) Fat transfer into nasolabial folds
3) Laser of the scars and chemical peel of the face two weeks after the procedure
4) Oxygen therapy and lymphatic drainage after the procedure to help the healing
4) Tightening of the muscle with permanent sutures to ensure a long lasting result
5) A surgery that is tailored to your face and does not make you look "DONE"
I hope this was helpful.
Yours,
Dr. A. David Rahim
I would like to know if a lower facelift will help not only my jowls but will it also reduce or tighten my nasal folds? Also, I have received literature about the Lifestyle Lift. Is this procedure safe in your opinion, and also do you know how long it lasts. I'm a bit skeptical about a salon type environment that moves people along like cattle but perhaps I'm wrong. Please let me know your opinion and one last question. Can fat taken from my own body be used to inject into my nasafolds and how long will it last if you can do it. Thank you for any info you can give me.
Posted by: rita Scott 2008-04-15 06:05