Facial Rejuvenation (Face Lift)

 

Newport Beach, Orange County, CA

 

 

 

Welcome to Orange County’s best information resource for plastic surgery and, in particular, face lift and facial rejuvenation surgery. Dr. Cruise, board certified plastic surgeon, Newport Beach, CA, has filled every inch of this site with the most comprehensive facial plastic surgery information available. Patient education is a priority for Dr. Cruise. With this in mind, he was adamant that the information be highly relevant, easy to understand and, above all, lots and lots of face lift pictures.

 

To give you a brief overview, here are some of the important topics that will be discussed. This is in addition to the many, many face lift before and after pictures available for your review.

 

• How do I know if I need a face lift?
  When is the right time to have a face lift?

 

• Can I get away with just a liquid face lift for now?
  Can soft tissue fillers or fat transfer rejuvenate me or is a face lift necessary?

 

• What type of face lift is best?
  What is a mini face lift, a lifestyle lift, or a quick lift? Dr. Cruise carefully outlines the aging process and makes sense of what is actually going on and what is necessary to correct the various problems.

 

• Face lift complications, risks, and safety
  Here we discuss wound healing issues, fluid collection, infections, etc.

 

• Face lift Recovery time
  How long do I have to take off work? When can I go out in public?

 

• Face lift cost
  Is financing available?

 

Custom Approach to Facial Rejuvenation

 

 

The world of face lifting has undergone dramatic improvement over the last ten years. In my hands, it has become less focused on skin-tightening and more focused on the resuspension and addition of fat with gentle redraping of the skin. This eliminates the over-done “surgical look” and creates a natural, youthful appearance. The difference between “surgical-look” of the traditional face lifting and the natural look of the new CustomLift® is apparent in the pictures. There is no need for an “operated on” look.

 

Custom Lift®

 

After reading the previous sections, you already understand that facial aging is actually a very complex process. It primarily involves the descent and loss of facial fat and muscles and secondarily the stretching of the skin. This is why I adamantly believe it is critical to address each patient’s specific problem areas instead of performing a one-size-fits-all lift. Extensive face lifting experience has led me to develop the Custom Lift®. The CustomLift® is a methodical way of identifying the individual causes of each patients facial aging and applying the least invasive correction method possible. This obtains predictable results with minimal down time. It corrects the underlying problem instead of creating a “pulled” look.

 

Youthful Face

 

Aging Face

 

The real value of the Custom Lift® is in the experience and methodical thought process of the surgeon. Rather than a ‘one size fits all’ procedure created by a plastic surgeon marketing team, the Custom Lift® is unique for each individual and performed by a highly experienced Board Certified Plastic Surgeon. The Plastic Surgeon has built his/her own practice based on great results and patient referrals.

 

What exactly is a CustomLift®?

 

There are three fundamental processes that make the CustomLift® so predictable and successful.

 

Clearly Identify the Primary Concern. A proper consultation with a board certified plastic surgeon will accomplish this task. Common concerns include:

 

• A tired appearance of their eyes,
• A gaunt, hollow look of their cheeks,
• Sagging jowls,
• Hanging neck.

 

It is critical to understand what it is that bothers the patient the most to make sure that, at a minimum, this concern is corrected.

 

Identify what are the Contributing Factors. CustomLift categorizes this as the “Regional Approach” to facial rejuvenation. Facial aging is not an isolated process. It involves entire areas. This is sometimes a difficult concept to understand but it makes sense. A great example is the tired upper eyelid. Patients routinely believe that just removing the upper eyelid skin will take care of their problem. This is rarely the case, especially in people over 40 years of age. Often, there is a sad look to the outer part of the eye caused by descent of the temple region. This gives a “hooded” appearance to the outer corner. This responds exceptionally well to both a temple lift and an upper blepharoplasty because this addresses all the contributing problems to this area. Conveniently, adding the temple lift does not significantly increase the down time or cost of the procedure.

 

Before After

Before After

 

Upper Eyelid, Temple Lift and Unilateral Brow Lift on the Right.

 

A more complex example is what occurs with aging with the face and neck. There are always multiple contributing factors. It is the plastic surgeon’s responsibility to determine what they are based on his/her extensive experience and training. Later in this section we will break down each area into components. This is the methodology that is used by plastic surgeons who perform the CustomLift®. Breaking down each area will allow you to easily understand what is causing your area of concern.

 

Prioritize. Simply telling you what needs to be corrected is not enough. It is critical for your surgeon to accurately assess what is the relative importance of each contributing factor and to prioritize them. This allows you to make an educated decision as to what is necessary to achieve the results you are looking for. You can make an educated decision regarding how much or how little you want done. A one-size-fits-all face lift is never appropriate.

 

• Identify the primary concern
• Identify the contributing factors
• Prioritize

 

The fundamental concept of the CustomLift® is to educate each patient in an easy to understand fashion the causes of their facial aging. Then, to prioritize the treatment plan so that the patients can achieve their desired result in the least invasive manner possible.

 

Obtaining the Best Result Possible is Paramount. Other heavily marketed face lifts concentrate on a “one size fits all” factory-type face lift. Whereas, CustomLift® represents the best that plastic surgery has to offer.

 

To enhance the results certain ancillary procedures such as a fat transfer, chemical peel, Botox®, etc can be added. This allows for a more complete rejuvenation.

 

 

Face lift enhanced by Chemical Peel and conservative Lip Augmentation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Components of the CustomLift®

 

The CustomLift® evaluates facial aging by dividing the face into four anatomically linked regions; the upper face, the mid face, the lower face, and the neck. This regional approach allows one to understand all the components of aging within that area. It should be mentioned that the entire face ages with time, however, some areas may age more dramatically.

 

 

Often, it is critical to address multiple components within the problem area in order to obtain an optimal natural rejuvenation. In keeping with the CustomLift® philosophy, it is critical for you to understand the relative importance of each component. This allows you to obtain the desired results with the least invasive approach. Let’s go through each region.Sun Damage and Poor Skin Quality

 

With age and sun damage many unfavorable things happen to facial skin. The surgical procedures above address how to manage excess skin, skin sag, volume loss, etc. The most difficult problem to correct is poor skin quality.

 

Aging causes the dermis to thin. This, along with sun damage, causes the skin to loose its elasticity. Therefore, neck skin that would snap back in a 30 year old becomes saggy skin in a 50 year old.

 

How can the skin quality be improved?

 

The CustomLift® addresses poor skin quality with two modalities. One is a TCA chemical peel. This penetrates the dermis causing it to heal with thicker and more elastic dermis. It has anywhere from a 3 day to a 2 week recovery period depending on how strong of peel is desired. The most impressive result of a chemical peel is how it gets rid of the aged spots caused by sun damage.

 

 

 

Sun damage corrected with chemical peel. Notice the dramatic improvement of skin quality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Face Lift incisions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video Testimonial
Face Lift, Neck Lift, Chin Implant, eyelid surgery	I chose Dr. Cruise after 10 years of research… Dr. Cruise runs a very good office and people who work with him are very knowledgeable and helpful… I’m very very happy with the results. I should have done it 10 years ago. Leah, 52 Facial Rejuvenation

 

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