Facelift or Injectables: Which Is Right for You?

If you wake up one morning and look in the mirror to find yourself staring at a reflection that’s starting to age, you may be a candidate for plastic surgery. There are many different kinds of plastic surgery, however, and the right approach for you depends on the way aging appears on your face. Two of the more popular kinds of facial rejuvenation? Facelifts and injectables.

Injectables

Injectables are solutions injected directly into the skin to plump, firm, and fill. They include both fillers and relaxants.

Fillers replace the fat which begins to disappear from the fat pockets in our faces as we age. This fat loss begins in our 30s and increases in our 40s and 50s. Relaxants, like Botox, soften the muscles which cause wrinkles along the brow and near the eyes.

Injectables are usually the first step in facial rejuvenation because they can correct early signs of wrinkles, especially around the eyes, and the beginning of facial fat loss seen in the cheeks and temples. For most people in their 20s and 30s, injectables are enough to maintain their youthful appearance. If you begin to have jowls or extra skin along your neck, injectables may not be enough, however. That’s when you’ll want to move on to a facelift that will lift and fill with your own fat as a filler.

Facelifts

Fillers correct aging up to a point. Eventually, however, more and more injectables actually reduces your natural look, giving you a look that is abnormal —  i.e. excess filling of the cheeks and lips! This screams that you need real plastic surgery for a more natural, youthful look. This usually occurs around the late 40s and 50s, and it’s important then to see a board-certified plastic surgeon with expertise in how to correct facial aging in a natural way. The surgeon will be able to determine if a facelift alone or a LIFT and FILL Facelift is the best corrective procedure for you.

The result? A natural, youthful appearance that can last up to ten years or more.

Facelifts alone correct excess saggy skin along the neck, eyebrows, and jowls. They can also remove wrinkles along the brow and near the lips and eyes. Sometimes, however, a facelift alone may not be enough to correct the signs of aging. When someone has lost too much fat in the face, we facial aging experts in plastic surgery address the loss of fat by transferring fat and performing a facelift. I have coined this work the “LIFT AND FILL” FACELIFT.