FACE & NECK LIFT
– AFTER WEIGHT LOSS –Today, face and neck lifts are vastly improved over the same surgeries performed a decade ago. No longer are the face or neck “pulled back” as they used to be during these procedures. Dr. Agha believe that surgery should be done in such a way to leave people wondering why patients look so refreshed and youthful, as opposed to obvious over-done results of the past. In fact, the biggest compliment you can receive today following a face or neck lift is when an acquaintance thinks you look much improved, but cannot tell that you had plastic surgery.
What Is The Difference Between Facial Ageing And Facial Sagging After Weight Loss?
Most over-weight people have large round faces and heavy necks. After significant weight loss, whether through weight loss surgery or diet and exercise, the skin of your face and neck will sag and cause you to look older than you really are. However, despite losing significant weight throughout your body, your face may retain some of the tell tale signs that you were once overweight. Even with a smaller frame, hanging skin along the sides of the jaw and under the chin are visible indications that those areas were once larger. This often detracts significantly from the joy of the weight loss success.
Unlike ageing face where facial skin and tissue laxity are uniformly affected over the whole face and neck, the face and neck changes after significant weight loss are more unique and individual. Like the pattern of body skin laxity that develops after weight loss, facial laxity is also dependent on many factors including gender, highest weight, amount of lost weight, current weight, genetics, age, and other factors that affects facial skin quality (e.g. sun exposure, smoking, etc.). The typical patient experiences forehead and brow sagging, loss of cheek fullness, drooping facial skin, prominent nasolabial folds, sagging jowls, loss of jaw bone definitions, double chin, heavy neck, and a lot of loose neck skin.
Overall, face lift and neck lift surgery after weight loss can help reverse many of the problems associated with major weight reduction, changes which cannot be achieved without plastic surgery. In our practice, many patients undergo face lift and neck lift surgery during or after their total body lift to regain self-confidence and improve their aesthetic appeal. While body lift procedures are often used to eliminate the issues that are brought about by excess skin in various areas on the body, facelift surgery restores the patient’s pride in their appearance. They can then enjoy their new body and youthful essence brought to their face.
Face lift and neck lift surgery after weight loss is often similar to the average face lift technique that is performed for facial ageing. Please see our Face section to learn more about Dr. Agha’s preferred Facelift technique.
However, there are many elements of the procedures that are more extensive and customized. Most weight loss patients will have significant skin excess of both their face and neck. They will also have heavy necks with double chins. Some patient’s will have thin faces with lose of cheek fullness. Between these two extremes, there is a spectrum of individualized facial alterations.
How Does Dr. Agha’s Facelift After Weight Loss Different Than A Standard Facelift
For our weight loss patient, Dr. Agha typically performs a full face and full neck lift surgery with the aim of removing as much loose skin as possible from both the neck and face. The procedure may start with liposuction of the submental area (under chin) and sometimes the neck to remove some remaining stubborn fat. Then a submental incision is made under the chin in order to tighten the platysma muscles of the neck and to correct for neck banding. The neck bands are then released at the midline.
Dr. Agha then makes face lift and neck lift incision in front and behind the ear, extending into the hairline behind the ear. Through these incisions facial and neck skin are elevated over facial muscles and fascia. If the face is rounder and fuller, Dr. Agha will excise the excess lax facial connective tissue and fatty layer (known as fascia) and will tighten the facial fascia and muscle in a reductive manner (removing tissue to make the face thinner).
In the thinner face, Dr. Agha folds and tightens the facial fascia on itself in an augmentative fashion (folding tissues on itself to bring volume to certain part of the upper face) using a series of sutures. In these patients, often some fat is also injected into the cheeks to make them fuller. The cheek fat pads are then lifted to a higher position with sutures. Next, Dr. Agha places multiple sutures to lift the neck upwards and backwards and secure it to the connective tissue fascia behind the ears.
Following elevation and tightening of the facial structures and cheeks, the excess skin of the face and neck is then trimmed and the incisions are closed in front and behind the ears. The end result of a face and neck lift typically rids the patient of unsightly jowls, sagging cheeks, drooping nasolabial folds, neck bands, and will smooth out the overall appearance of the face and neck areas.