Facelift: the secrets of a surgical facelift from a professional

Today, among the many plastic surgeries that are performed on millions of patients around the world, one of the most popular and in demand is facelift surgery. With age, facial tissues succumb to gravitational ptosis, and this is – one of the most obvious signs of aging. With the help of facelift, it is possible to tighten the sagging tissues and restore youth to the face.

Candidate of Medical Sciences, Leading Plastic Surgeon Slyusarev Ilya Yuryevich has extensive experience in performing such operations. In an exclusive interview for estet-portal.com, the doctor shared his experience and spoke about the features of facelift.

How often do you have to have a facelift operation

It should be noted that these are one of the most specialized operations in plastic surgery. Women apply at different ages, with different issues. Facelift has its own characteristics, it can be performed in different volumes. And this applies specifically to women of different ages. This is a fairly common operation that is done almost every day.

Do you premedicate before facelift procedure

When it comes to full-scale operations, they are usually performed under anesthesia, so the anesthesiologist takes full responsibility for both premedication and anesthesia support during the intervention. In some cases, patients need preparation just before surgery. This usually consists in cosmetic procedures, cleaning the skin, degreasing it, improving its trophism. All in order to facilitate the further postoperative period.

Tell us about the features of the facelift after the installation of threads

Threads are different. Basically, if the patient has already undergone some kind of surgery, and the threads are, certainly some tissue movement has already been carried out through this procedure. And it is necessary to take into account what effect was exerted on the surface layers of the skin. If some kind of lifting has been achieved through the threads, it may not be enough in certain places.

Then it is necessary to increase the emphasis on those areas that were not affected by the thread lifting. All other operations proceed normally, typically, and, by and large, do not fundamentally differ from the performance of the main, basic surgical intervention.

If we see that these are obvious fibrous changes, then in areas that have undergone precisely such atrophic effects, we must go in another layer, in order not to touch the fibrous layers.

We have the ability to manipulate in different layers of the face. This is both the surface layer of the skin and the middle layer of tissues – soft tissue layer, this is usually the SMAS flap. We can also perform a subperiosteal lift, when the entire block of tissue is lifted from the bone core, and then we perform the lift. It is advisable not to subject areas that have undergone this or that ischemia, scarring, fibrosis to secondary intervention, because the course of this process will be difficult to predict, I would say.

Which facelift method do you most often use in your practice?

It is quite difficult to answer this question, because last year my facelift monograph was published, which describes more than 30 facelift options. Of course, each of them has its indications and limitations. Of course, there are operations that are performed more often: this is usually a classic SMAS plastic surgery, this is a complex facelift operation according to Sem Hamra and, again, every patient, every face – it is individual.

The task of a competent plastic surgeon is not to make it difficult for everyone, but to make it adequate, sufficient and with a relatively short and, again, adequate recovery period.

The recovery period can also be completely different, according to the invasion of intraoperative trauma. Therefore, we must balance between the result, operational risk, and, again, the recovery period. And most importantly – this is a prolongation of the result, how long the result of this intervention will last.

If we are talking about post-operative care, do you prescribe cosmetic procedures during the rehabilitation period?

I think this is a very important point. Firstly, in the postoperative period, the patient, one way or another, needs some kind of guardianship. And this is not only a surgeon, it is, of course, a complex of doctors. This is functional physiotherapy, this is cosmetology, this is generally complex rehabilitation, which includes maintaining the psychological well-being of the patient, improving skin trophism, restoring the postoperative period, that is, this is a complex work of the surgeon, and, of course, cosmetologists and rehabilitation specialists.