Facial Rejuvenation: To Operate or Not?

The availability of nonsurgical treatments in medicine has made facial rejuvenation more accessible for adults of all ages. One example of nonsurgical facial rejuvenation that has changed the landscape of treatment options is the Liquid Facelift. This procedure may utilize two or more injectable products to smooth dynamic wrinkles and fill in areas where volume loss has occurred. The use of injectables is not uncommon, nor is it unreasonable to think that injectable products can achieve outstanding results. That said, we must acknowledge that there are situations for which a surgical approach is the better choice. Here, we will discuss how to discern which approach may be right for you. 

Benefits of a Liquid Facelift

To be transparent, we do not perform the Liquid Facelift in our office. The Liquid Facelift is a term that has been trademarked to indicate a specific training module offered by its creators. We do perform injectable treatments and achieve great results with them. 

We cannot discuss discernment without offering a look at the reasons so many people like the idea of injectable facial rejuvenation over surgery. These include:

• Treatment is performed in the office
• Injectables take less than an hour
• Little downtime, if any
• Little, if any, discomfort during and after treatment
• Lower up-front cost
• Natural looking results

What You Should Know About Facelift Surgery

Facial aging is related to a few changes in the skin and musculature of the face. Sometime during our early 20s, the body significantly slows down its production of collagen, elastin, and hyaluronic acid. These are vital substances that firm, smooth, and plump the skin. Over time, without these ingredients, the skin thins out, it deflates, and it gets wrinkled. The subcutaneous fat that gives the face shape gets depleted. Later in life, the bones of the face even degrade. We cannot stop this process, but we can work to revive facial contours. Facelift surgery does that. 

Where injectables work on the skin and superficial tissue, a facelift goes deeper. This procedure, performed in an outpatient surgery center, moves the muscle and fat back where it belongs. The cheeks regain their “padding.” The jawline is relieved of its heaviness. Because surgery manually repositions tissue, it achieves more dramatic results. Those results can look as natural if not more so than injectables, depending on the severity of laxity and deflation. 

Facelift Surgery, and even a minimally invasive thread lift, may be a better option than injectables in some situations. If you don’t want to have to maintain your youthful appearance with touch-ups a few times a year, you may be better suited to a surgical lift or thread lift. If your neck is also showing signs of aging, you may like your results of a surgical lift better. 

Facial aging is unique to each person, so we cannot cookie-cut the “ideal treatment.”  To explore which approach may be best for you, contact our Salem, OR office at 503-561-7000.