- Initial incisions
- Plication
- Skin excision
- Scar pitfalls
- Pre-jowl implant
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Face Lift: Opening Incisions |
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We will begin
discussing the face lift operation in this chapter. With the pull of
gravity and the loss of skin elasticity over time, the skin of the face droops
in characteristic ways. The face lift attempts to minimize the appearance
of some of those changes.
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The cheek skin just
lateral to the chin droops to make what we call a "jowl" (red arrow
and bulge). Twenty years ago, her jaw line was a smooth curve from the chin up to
the ear (along the black line), but now there is a small dollop of skin, the jowl, that
puts a bump in that previously-smooth line. Excess skin collects under the
chin and in front of the neck (light blue arrow), and the face develops creases that
run from the corners of the mouth down to the jaw line, just in front of the
jowl (green lines). Some people call those creases "marionette
lines," or "drool lines." Ugh. I hate that term.
The face lift operation can improve all of the areas mentioned above. The purple line in the diagram highlights a deepening of what we call the "melolabial fold," the fold between the cheek and the upper lip. The face lift operation typically does not improve the appearance of that particular fold. |
| Click on any image in this tutorial to see a greatly-enlarged version |
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The woman pictured
above and below had a face lift operation. Working through incisions
hidden around the ears, the surgeon pulls the skin up and back along the jaw line
to smoothen the jowl (red arrow below). The excess skin underneath the
chin is also draped upwards (yellow arrow). As I mentioned previously, there is
not a significant pull in the direction of the blue arrow. The face lift
operation works best on the lower part of the face, from about the level of the
lips down into the mid portion of the neck.
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It's almost a mis-named
operation. We think of the "face" as everything from the top of
the forehead down to the chin, but the "face" lift operation really
works only on the lower part of the face.
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| (Use the page links, immediately below this paragraph, to navigate through the pages of this chapter.) |
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Clear all red checks in the Face Lift Tutorial |
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