What is a Face Lift?

A face-lift (rhytidectomy) is a cosmetic surgical procedure to create a younger appearance in your face by returning the sagging or folds of skin on the cheeks and jawline and other changes in the shape of your face to their original position and removing any excess skin.

During a face-lift, a flap of skin on each side of the face is lifted up and the soft tissue underneath is put back in the original position. When this skin and tissue is pulled back, and tissues below are returned to their original position, the contour and shape of the face is returned to a more youthful shape. Before the flap is sutured closed, excess skin is removed.

A neck lift (platysmaplasty) is often done as part of a face-lift to reduce fat deposits and sagging skin on the neck.

Why it’s done

As you get older, the appearance and shape of your face is altered because of normal age-related changes. Your skin becomes less elastic and sags. The fat deposits decrease in some areas of your face and increase in others. This can cause hollowing out in some areas and bulking up in other areas. Age-related changes in your face that may be reduced with a face-lift include the following:

• Sagging appearance of your cheeks
• Excess skin at your lower jawline (jowls)
• Deepening of the fold of skin from the side of your nose to the corner of your mouth
• Sagging skin and excess fat in the neck (if the procedure includes a neck lift

A face-lift isn’t a treatment for superficial wrinkles, sun damage, creases around the nose and upper lip, or irregularities in skin color

A traditional face-lift incision starts at your temples in the hairline, continues down and around the front of your ears and ends behind your ears in your lower scalp. An incision might be made under your chin to improve the appearance of your neck.

There are other types of incisions. A limited incision is a shorter incision that begins in your hairline just above your ear, wraps around the front of your ear, but does not extend all the way into the lower scalp.

Neck lift incision starts in front of your earlobe and continues around your ear into your lower scalp. A small incision also is made under your chin.