What are the goals of a good Facelift?

Stretched and “Done” vs. Natural and Young

When patients come in talking about a Facelift, they generally want to look younger and point out the things that they don’t like about their faces… but when you stretch your facial skin back, it results in a “pulled” look, with the corners of the mouth also stretching back.

I have been in practice for over 20 years and have seen a lot of facelift results that I was less than impressed with. To me, the best Facelift results in a more youthful, refreshed appearance, as opposed to the ‘done’ look.

In this video, I discuss the factors which result in the best Facelift outcomes. I use before and after photos to illustrate the “stretched” look, a computer diagram showing eye-tracking movements of people viewing a face, and a recent Facelift patient’s before and after photos to show you a more natural Facelift result.

While most people tend to be concerned about the jawline and jowls, the lower face is the area that others see the least. So instead of focusing on how you see yourself, I like to focus on how others see you, how others look at you. I approach a Facelift from top to bottom, focusing on the eyes and the mid-face first, not only from a perception point of view but also from a functional and structural point of view.

There are various types of Facelifts and techniques to discuss during a consult, but the best Facelift results in a more youthful, refreshed appearance with relaxed eyes and a sense of volume underneath the eyes and in the cheek area as opposed to the ‘done’ or ‘stretched’ look where the corners of the mouth tend to pull upward and the ears tend to pull forward. A good Facelift should be a restructuring of the face, not a pulling of the skin.

Learn more about the procedure on our Facelift information page and see more of our Facelift patients in our before and after photos in our photo gallery.