Facelift surgery is an excellent option for treating sagging and wrinkles in the mid to lower face. However, people rarely age in just one localized area. If you experience multiple signs of aging or aesthetic concerns, treating just one area may result in a lack of harmony between your facial features, with one region appearing more aged than or disproportionate to another.
Combining facelift surgery with the appropriate procedures for your needs can achieve more comprehensive facial rejuvenation and a balanced facial appearance. Undergoing everything in a single surgery also has the benefit of saving you money because you only pay the costs associated with anesthesia and the facility once rather than multiple times separately for each procedure. Additionally, these combinations enable you to recover from all your procedures at once, meaning you’ll need significantly less downtime compared to having separate recoveries after each surgery.
Dr. Maas commonly performs the following facial plastic surgery combinations for his patients. During your personal consultation, he will evaluate you and listen to your goals to help determine the best procedure or combination of procedures for you.
Lower facelift surgery addresses sagging and skin laxity from your cheekbones down to your neck. Drooping tissues are lifted and tightened to restore your youthful cheeks, jawline and neck.
When we’re young, there is a thin layer of fat in our faces that creates youthful volume and plumpness. Over time, this fat gradually diminishes and may leave us with facial wrinkles, lines and hollows. Facial fat transfer (fat grafting) takes excess fat from another area of your body, such as the abdomen or thighs, and strategically injects it into areas of your face to restore the contours and smooth, unwrinkled skin of your younger days.
Laser resurfacing rejuvenates your skin tone and texture. The outer layer of skin is safely ablated with laser light, and the heat stimulates your skin to produce more collagen. This reduces dark spots, wrinkles, fine lines, scars and other cosmetic surface concerns. Combining this non-surgical treatment with your facial plastic surgeries can further enhance your new facial contours with a smooth, even complexion.
If you have excess fat beneath your chin (in what is known as the submental area), tightening this area may make a “double chin” appear more prominent. Even a small amount of fat in this area can make you look heavier than you are. Dr. Maas can perform submental liposuction to remove fat from under your chin and create a more defined chin and jawline.
This combination of procedures achieves results similar to the combination described above, but it addresses eyelid sagging rather than excess fat beneath the chin. Loose, crepey skin, displaced fat and stretched muscles in your eyelids can create a tired appearance. Your upper eyelids may even hang over your eyes and block your full range of vision. Fat deposits in the lower eyelids can create puffiness or bags, and lost fat can create dark circles and hollow under-eyes. Eyelid surgery can be performed on the upper and lower eyelids to smooth the skin, redistribute or remove fat and tighten the muscles for an alert, rested eye appearance.
This combination of facial rejuvenation procedures is also similar to the first combination explained above, but it addresses the cheeks and middle portion of the face rather than unwanted fat beneath the chin.
If your cheek pads have fallen into the lower part of your midface, a percutaneous mid facelift can benefit you. With this type of mid facelift, Dr. Maas elevates your cheek pads back up to their natural positions in the upper part of your midface. This technique restores fuller, more youthful cheeks.
Like the first combination procedure, this too addresses laxity from your mid face to your neck (facelift), facial volume loss (fat transfer) and skin texture and tone concerns (laser resurfacing). However, if you suffer from signs of aging in the upper face, you may be a candidate for adding an upper eyelid lift and brow lift to your surgery. If you’re combining laser resurfacing, you can choose to have the full-face laser resurfacing or periocular resurfacing, which targets the areas around your eyes.
Loose tissues in your upper eyelids can droop over your eyes, creating a perpetually tired or angry appearance and blocking your peripheral vision. Aging can also cause your eyebrows to sag and potentially hang over your eyes, making your issue of hooded eyelids even worse. In addition, laxity in the forehead can lead to horizontal wrinkles in the area and vertical furrows between your brows.
By tightening lax tissues in these areas and eliminating excess skin with an upper eyelid lift and brow lift (forehead lift), Dr. Maas can restore your vision, smooth your skin and create a more alert, cheerful appearance.
Some facelift patients have concerns about their facial features rather than signs of aging. If you are dissatisfied with the size or shape of your nose and want a larger, more prominent chin, rhinoplasty and chin implant surgery can be combined with your facelift.
Rhinoplasty, also called nose surgery, can make your nose smaller, larger or more symmetrical. It can correct humps and indentations on your nasal bridge, a pointed or drooping tip and almost any other nasal concern you have.
A chin implant is a customized, pliable silicone implant used to augment the area and correct a recessed chin.
Rhinoplasty and mentoplasty performed with facelift surgery help you attain more balanced facial characteristics.
If you suffer from hair loss and are considering facelift surgery, you may be worried about having enough hair to cover the resulting scars. While facelift incisions are placed inconspicuously and carefully sutured to reduce tension and scars, some scarring is inevitable. Even if scarring isn’t a concern for you, you may wish to reverse your hair loss to complement your rejuvenated facial contours after a facelift and present a whole new, younger-looking you.
As a member of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery and a specialist in hair restoration, Dr. Maas offers safe and effective hair transplant procedures. He will take hair follicles from a healthy donor area with dense hair, such as the back of your scalp, and transplant them individually in the area of your scalp that needs restoration.
PRP for hair restoration involves a simple blood draw (similar to the process for getting bloodwork done). The blood is then purified to separate the plasma from the white and red blood cells. This plasma contains platelets that promote healing and repair in the body, and it is injected into the area needing hair restoration to stimulate hair growth.
While these are popular procedure combinations, Dr. Maas can create a completely customized treatment plan for your needs that may include different procedures. He will listen to what you hope to accomplish aesthetically and discuss the procedure options to achieve your goals and how best to combine them. Dr. Maas is a board-certified facial plastic surgeon and the president of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS). To schedule a consultation with him at The Maas Clinic™ in San Francisco, call us at (415) 567-7000 or fill out our website contact form.