Percutaneous Facelift - Facelift Without Visible Scars
Dr. John Anastasatos is a renowned Los Angeles Plastic Surgeon and he is known as one of the top choices for your Percutaneous Facelift in Los Angeles.
A percutaneous facelift is a unique type of facelift that I offer to my patients that avoids long scars in front and behind the ears. It avoids visible scars. It avoids undermining of the skin of the face and this, in turn, makes it safer and with a much faster recovery.
The percutaneous facelift procedure is done through a small incision in the temporal area and is hidden in the hairline. This incision is about an inch and half in length. This is the only incision or scar done. The whole facelift and midface suspension are performed through this small incision. The rest of the procedure is done percutaneously and there no scars involved.
This innovative operation adheres to the proper anatomical basis of the facelift. It targets, elevates, and suspends the Malar Fat Pad which is the critical structure of the face pertaining to facial rejuvenation. As the Malar Fat Pad descends with age it deepens the nasolabial folds, causes loos of zygomatic prominence, saggy corners of the mouth, and jowls. Jowls can be particularly bothersome and represent perhaps the main reason patients come to see me requesting a facelift. Malar Fat Pad elevation is performed percutaneously with this technique and this results in increased cheek prominence and zygomatic projection. It furthermore raises the corners of the mouth and corrects the jowls. It improves the jawline and the nasolabial folds.
- The patient is awake. No general anesthesia is required but can be offered. Only a small dose of local anesthesia is required just like when a patient goes to the dentist.
- The procedure duration is about an hour.
- There are no cuts in front and around the ear like typical facelifts. This procedure is done only with one single incision in the hairy part of the temporal scalp. The incision is one inch long. Because it is in the hair the incision is not visible.
- This procedure is performed with the use of a special needle invented for this purpose. The inspiration for this needle was the knitting needle.
- No skin is detached. Therefore the recovery is very fast as there is minimal swelling. People thus can return to work after 2-3 days or a weekend.
- It is percutaneous. That means that with the use of the special needle the lift is done with the needle going in and out of the skin but without leaving skin marks.
- It is unique because it bridges the gap between injectable fillers and a formal large-scale facelift. Injectable fillers cannot replace the need for a facelift and yet some patients are not ready to have a formal facelift with prolonged recovery time and visible scars.
- It is ideal for most patients in the thirties and forties who begin to the initial signs of facial aging such as jowls yet they don’t have skin laxity to require a facelift.
- It is also ideal for patients who had a facelift in the past and need a touch-up and an additional pull yet do not wish to have another big surgery. It is also ideal and indicated for the younger patients who are between the age of 35-50 with noticeable jowls and loss of cheek fullness but do not have considerable skin laxity. Patients in general who are bothered by the stigmatizing aging signs of jowls, prominent, deep and elongated nasolabial folds, loss of cheek fullness and zygomatic projection, tear-trough deformities may be good candidates for this operation.
- It provides a natural way to lift the cheeks and provide desirable cheek prominence without looking fake or plastic. The best part is that of someone does not like the result this procedure is reversible.