Dr. Lucas on Getting a Facelift: What You Need to Know

If you feel like your face is aging rapidly or is not reflective of the way you feel inside, you are not alone. As humans, aging takes a toll on our bodies… especially our faces.Today, more people than ever are seeking out corrective solutions to combat the effects of aging and help create a more balanced, youthful look.

In this article, we’ll walk you through common causes and signs of advanced aging and help you decide if a preventative or corrective facelift is right for you.

Do you have an aging appearance?

Many factors contribute to an aging appearance, including genetics, stress, poor skincare, sleep deprivation, smoking, lack of proper diet or exercise, and sun exposure. Any one or more of these can lead to aggressive aging, however, some are far more common and much harder to avoid…

The sun is not your face’s friend

For example, excessive sun exposure is one of the most common reasons for men and women today are seeking out facelifts. This is mainly because the baby boomer generation didn’t have easy access to the same information about the sun’s effect on the skin that today’s generations do. Because of this, many of them spent their formative years tanning excessively, which has caused damage to their face that causes them to appear older than they may actually feel.

Many people don’t realize how sunlight can affect their skin. In addition to a risk of skin cancer, sunlight can also damage our skin’s DNA by emitting UV rays and energy that effect the amount of collagen and elastin we have in our face. Collagen and elastin provide structural support to the skin, meaning it can become loose and inelastic when deprived of these important proteins.

Similarly, though baby boomers may not have realized at the time, many of them spent a great deal of time smoking, which can also affect the micro-circulation in your face and break down the structural nature of healthy proteins.

It all starts with genetics

Genetics play a large role in the aging of a person’s face. The hard truth is, some people are blessed with sturdier, more elastic skin than others, making them appear rested and youthful longer. This, plus many other unavoidable contributing factors (such as gravity and intrinsic genetic reactions), continuously pull on your skin’s tissue over time. This can lead to atrophied tissue and volume loss in fat pads in many areas of the face that causes loose, hanging skin in areas like the cheeks and jaw lines.

Unfortunately, losing volume in your face also effects other areas of your appearance, such as your lips and eyebrows. When the tissue that supports the structure of your face falls, your brows can tend to hang lower, your cheeks may fold over more, and your lips may thin out and develop vertical lines. Essentially, aging isn’t pretty… but it can be managed!

Preventively manage the problem at home

Aging faces can be managed with an effective, at-home skincare routine. Ideally, this routine should include a good moisturizer, vitamin A or C, and sunscreen (we can’t stress that one enough)! You can check your skincare products at cosDNA.com for any pore-clogging ingredients. Simply look in the “acne” column when you type in the product name and consider stopping use of any products with a 3, 4, or 5 (source: Curology).

In-office treatments of BOTOX, micro-needling, chemical peels, and dermabrasion are also great for preventatively managing the aging of your face. These services provide volume restoration and can be paired with a variety of filler agents to offset many negative effects associated with aging.

Remember: safe, corrective action requires a professional

That being said… it’s important to remember that loose, hanging skin around the brows, eyelids, jaw, and neck line can only be restored safely and consistently with surgical correction. This process is known as a facelift. This procedure causes little to no discomfort and only minor swelling and bruising that typically clears up around 2 weeks post-surgery. However, facelifts require 4 full weeks of recovery time before seeing the true results.

Using expert technique to create long-lasting confidence

Dr. Lucas visualizes the face in 3 components: the upper facial third (the forehead, brows, and eyelids), middle facial third (the cheeks and lateral face to the ears), and the lower facial third (just below the nose, including the lower jaw and neck). He carefully evaluates each of these areas for signs of aging and determines the safest, most precise method for aligning the different components of the face as needed.

1) Upper third area: If your brows are drooping over your eyelids, they may need to be repositioned with an endoscopic brow lift. The upper lids need to be open enough to show the full aperture of the eye to avoid a sleepy look. Your lower eyelids should have a crisp lateral angle and fully support the eye without excess tissue or fat. If the eye is not supported, it can cause inconvenient and potentially dangerous vision issues.

2) Middle third area: This area is primarily restored by adding missing volume to the fat pads in your cheeks. Fillers can help with this short-term, but fat grafting is the ideal (and most efficient) method if you’re already in surgery for a lift.

Before & After

3) Lower third area: This area includes the lips, which may also require volume restoration. During a lift is a good time to consider this as it will enhance your youthful look further. However, unlike the middle face region, this is when Dr. Lucas prefers to use a non-permanent filler agent. Because fat retention in this area isn’t successful (the skin is very tight), the right amount of filler for you can create a more natural, restful appearance without being as invasive as other procedures. Paired with dermabrasion, this can be extremely effective in delivering the smooth results you want.

At the end of the day, Dr. Lucas wants you to feel GOOD and confident when you look in the mirror. When done right, a facelift can shed years off your age by giving you a visibly younger overall appearance for years to come (10, on average!). At The Lucas Center, our goal for any face or neck lift isn’t to change you… it’s to make you feel refreshed and rejuvenated by enhancing your face’s unique, natural features.

Have a question about this procedure? Call (865) 218-6210 or fill out a quick contact form to schedule your personalized consultation today!