In my experience most appropriate face lift candidates are in their 50's or 60's. Certain patients in their 40's may also benefit from a face lift. There is no age limitation to consider for face lift surgery as long as patients are in good general health. When done for the right reasons, a face lift provides the most dramatic improvement in facial appearance.

To younger face lift patients who have specific concerns about facial appearance and are considering face lift I say that unless there is significant looseness of skin, there are better ways to enhance facial appearance with lower risk and quicker recovery. Fat injection and facial liposuction are two excellent alternatives to a face lift procedure in these cases.

Healing problems are a primary concern when performing a facelift- there is no margin for error when dealing with your face! I believe that one of the biggest factors causing healing complications is cigarette smoking. The chemicals from a single cigarette circulate in your bloodstream for up to 8 hours causing blood vessels to contract thus limiting oxygen supply to skin that is trying to heal itself. This can lead to dead skin at the incision line resulting in terrible looking scars when the wound finally heals. Because of the seriousness of this risk I will not perform a face lift on a patient who smokes.

New Developments in Face Lift Surgery

There has been a major change in the way face lifts have been performed over the past 5 years. The trend has been towards techniques using shorter incisions with greater reinforcement of the deeper layers. This allows the skin itself to be under less tension creating a softer, more natural result. Nobody wants the overdone "windblown" look that we sometimes see on the Red Carpet on Oscar night.

These newer approaches require less separation of the skin from the deeper layers, and so healing risks are reduced (but not enough to let you smoke!). The result is faster healing with shorter downtime. I think that this advance in our surgical approach has been nothing short of amazing in providing a better result while at the same time reducing the risks of surgery.