Nowadays, surgical procedures tend to produce increasingly natural results. One of the main goals when seeking facial rejuvenation is, without a doubt, a refreshed appearance without the signs or stigmas of surgery.

For us, the most important thing is for patients to look fresher, much younger, even, in some cases, as if they’ve lost weight or gone back in time. One of our priorities is for them to have a significant change without the obvious aftereffects of any previous surgical procedure, such as visible scars, changes in facial expression, anatomical distortions, or expressionless faces. The success of a full facial rejuvenation (deep plane full facelift) is to provide our patients with a result as if they had just returned from the best vacation of their lives, with a relaxed, refreshed appearance and a change not only physically but also a true improvement in their quality of life—a total internal refreshment.

Gravity does its job; as the years go by, everything that rises always tends to fall. This is normal, and this is where our role as specialists plays a very important role. We must be very honest with those who come for our evaluation in order to seek that “change.” This shouldn’t always be what patients want to hear, but rather a real and objective guide regarding what will be most convenient for our patient, always providing the most harmonious and natural result for their facial expression, preserving their features, and generating external and internal well-being.

Rhytidoplasty – cervicofacial lifting – facelift surgery – facelift is, technically, the name given to this beautiful procedure that seeks to remove excess skin from the face and correct facial angles that may be altered by the effects of gravity and aging of both the skin and bone. It can include the forehead, upper and lower eyelids, cheeks, jowls, jawline, and neck, as appropriate.

With this surgical procedure, we soften expression lines (wrinkles) by tightening the skin and muscles of the face and recreating the correct angles. Anatomically, there is a structure known as the SMAS (superficial musculoaponeurotic system), which covers and supports nervous and vascular structures and provides support and coverage to various facial muscles.

One of the objectives of this surgical technique is to provide permanent support that allows us to guarantee a lasting result. It’s not enough to simply lift the skin; it’s necessary to provide a true lifting of the skin and the entire face, offering pleasant expressions, not ones of surprise or fear.

It’s essential to keep in mind that our work focuses on minimal incisions or scars, which are camouflaged along the natural anatomical lines to alleviate these fears in our patients.

Given associated processes such as bone resorption (bone loss), the use of facial fillers or even the placement of prostheses in areas such as the chin may be necessary to advance the area and achieve better contouring, depending on your needs.

What Type of Patients Is This Procedure Indicated for?

All human beings are completely different, and genetics has ensured that we are pre-designed in a special way. Heredity also plays a role in this aspect, contributing to more or less accelerated aging processes. For this reason, it is important to clarify that there is no exact age for performing this surgical procedure; it will depend more on associated factors that contribute to accelerating or delaying the process, from a healthy lifestyle to an inadequate quality of life or aging changes attributed to prolonged sun exposure, dehydration, sedentary lifestyle, alcohol, smoking, etc.

It’s important to keep in mind that there are multiple safe medical tools on the market that specialists qualified to perform these procedures can use to help prevent this premature facial aging process. These include botulinum toxin (Botox), hyaluronic acid (fillers), platelet-rich plasma, and thread lifts, among others. While they greatly help us prevent and somewhat camouflage these early signs of aging, there will come a time when they alone will not be enough to bring about the change our patients desire, and that’s where rhytidoplasty surgery is indicated. It’s worth noting that we can continue with all the minimally invasive procedures described above as a complement to our surgical procedure to ensure proper future maintenance and perpetuate those beautiful changes achieved.

Performing a facelift is truly a significant surgical challenge; each patient is a completely different world, and each case has more or less specific needs. There are factors that significantly influence the outcome, such as tissue laxity, skin type, previous procedures, volume loss, past medical conditions, or associated comorbidities. All of these factors will be thoroughly assessed during our consultation.