Face Lift

 

 

Welcome to Orange County’s best information resource for plastic surgery and, in particular, face lift / neck lift surgery. Dr. Cruise, board certified plastic surgeon, Newport Beach, CA, has filled every inch of this site with the most comprehensive face lift 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 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 facelift before and after pictures available for your review.

 

• What are the different types of face lift?
  What is a mini face lift, lifestyle lift, quick lift or a SMAS face lift?

 

• What does a face lift do?
  Does it correct jowling, loose skin, saggy neck? What are its limitations?

 

• Do I need a face lift or a neck lift or both?
  Find out when one is better than the other.

 

• Face lift Before and After pictures
  Find people similar to you.

 

• Complications, risks, recovery and safety

 

• Face lift cost
  Is financing available?

 

The purpose of the site is to give you the good AND the bad to help you achieve your goal. There is a significant amount of information. Make sure you visit the custom face lift section. This section outlines the effects of all the major procedures of the face including eyelid surgery, brow lift, fat transfer, neck and face lift, chin implants, to mention a few.

 

Overview of Face Lift

 

When the term face-lift is brought up, many people think of a skin tightening procedure. This, in fact, used to be true up until about 10 years ago. At that time plastic surgeons began serious evaluation of the causes of facial aging. What has been discovered is that skin stretching over time is only a small part of the aging process. Other factors have been found to be the major contributors. Facial rejuvenation requires that all the contributing factors be corrected in order to produce the most aesthetically pleasing, natural result. The fruit of this research is that face-lifting is much more predictable and effective at re-creating the youthful appearance we once had.

 

 

Dr. Cruise has been actively involved in investigating the causes of facial aging. It is not enough to just tighten skin. This can create an unnatural look and certainly does not re-create the full, glowing look of youth. The easiest way to describe this is to look at the cheeks of a baby. They are full of fat. In today’s society fat is considered a bad thing but nothing could be further from the truth in regard to facial rejuvenation. In fact, it is the descent and/or loss of facial fat primarily and other factors secondarily that causes the characteristic look of facial aging. See the aging woman below.

 

 

If you look at any model, male or female, you will see high cheeks that are full of fat. Now, look at an older person. You will see that this facial fat has fallen from the cheek area and now is located in the fold above the upper lip and in the jowl area at, or even below, the mandibular border. The results of facial aging are quite predictable but only a small part of it is because of skin stretching.

 

 

Notice how cheek fat descends with age. This gives a gaunty look to the eyes. It also enlarges the naso labial folds just above the lips and creates jowls at the jaw line. The once elegant triangular face has fallen creating an aged rectangular look.

 

 

It is a very exciting time in plastic surgery because we are just beginning to solve the puzzle of facial aging. Even though facial aging affects the entire face and neck, sometimes a patient is really only concerned with a particular area such as the neck. In this situation, only that area needs to be addressed. This is an excellent way to approach facial rejuvenation. You should only have corrected what really bothers you. You can always come back and have other things done.

 

Dr. Cruise’s technique for face-lifting addresses ALL the causes of facial aging. It is not a skin pulling procedure that is commonly practiced. Primarily, it involves elevating the facial fat that has fallen into the upper lip/cheek fold and into the jowl area. This fat is then suspended back up to the cheek area where it should be. This has a three-fold effect. It helps to reduce the prominent upper lip/cheek fold and also re-creates a fuller cheek area similar to that of youth. In addition, elevating the fat from the jowls defines the mandibular border. This effectively widens the face at the cheek level and narrows it within the jaw area. By doing this, an elegant triangular shape is recreated. Look at an attractive young model and then at a person with obvious facial aging. The youthful model will have a triangular shape whereas the face of the older person will have a more rectangular shape. Dr. Cruise has developed sophisticated techniques to recreate this triangular shape without an operated loo.This is done by re-suspending the cheek fat and muscles. Then redraping the skin gently so that it does not look tight or unnatural

 

 

As far as the neck is concerned, Dr. Cruise has developed a unique technique utilizing suture suspension to elevate the tissues of the neck. This dramatically tightens the hanging skin and eliminates the banding under the chin that is so common with aging. This creates a neck with a high, sharp angle above the Adams apple like that of youth. This is discussed in more detail within the neck-lifting section of this web site.

 

The results of face lifting and neck lifting are quite dramatic. They can easily take 10 to 20 years off of your apparent age. You must, however, understand that the aging process never stops. So, eventually the procedure may need to be repeated in 10 to 15 years. Some people say, Why bother? For them, it doesn’t matter. But for most people, if they can turn the clock back 10 to 20 years, it has a huge impact on their state of mind and subsequently quality of life.

 

Before After	Before After
43-year-old woman. Notice improvement of jowling, jaw line, and neck.	Notice how the facial shape has change from rectangular to a more youthful triangular appearance.

Face Lift Videos:

 

• Overview – 3.17
• Patient experience Misty – 3.38
• Patient experiende Leah – 2.11
• Patient experience Maria – 2.12
• Leah full version- 12.59
• Maria full version- 9.54

 

Face Lift Good Candidates ››

 

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