While aging comes with great wisdom, it can wreak havoc on your looks. One of the most common problems associated with natural aging is folds and sagging around the cheeks and jawlines. Fortunately, a Facelift is the ideal cosmetic procedure to eliminate these unwanted features and restore your youthful look.

The Standard Facelift Procedure

A standard facelift procedure is intended to provide patients with a more youthful facial appearance. It involves making incisions along the hairline, down to the lower ear, and pulling the skin to remove unwanted facial folds and sagging. Many times, a facelift surgery will be performed alongside other cosmetic procedures, such as a neck lift, to better enhance the patient’s results.

What to Expect Before, During, and After the Procedure

Before you undergo a facelift surgery, you’ll need to schedule a consultation with a licensed cosmetic surgeon. This is where you’ll see facelift before and after pictures, learn about the facelift cost, and create realistic expectations about your procedure.

On the day of your surgery, you’ll be put under general anesthesia. A typical facelift surgery will last between two and four hours. The overall surgery time will depend highly on the size of your treatment area and the number of cosmetic procedures that you have performed.

After your surgery is complete, you can expect to deal with some bruising and swelling of the face. This should subside within a few days. You’ll need to wear bandages or a facial sling for at least one week following your surgery to ensure that your face properly heals and to reduce the risk of excessive swelling. Follow all self-care instructions given by your surgeon to lower your risk of having facelift scars. Most patients will see the permanent results of their facelift surgeries around four weeks post-surgery.

The Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate for a facelift procedure is a person who is considered healthy. This person should be a non-smoker and have realistic expectations about what the cosmetic procedure can do for them. Those who have a chronic medical condition don’t make ideal candidates for this type of cosmetic procedure.

FAQs

Are my results permanent?
The results from your facelift are considered to be permanent. However, it’s imperative to understand that a facelift doesn’t stop the natural process of human aging. In the future, you may experience some signs of aging that can be addressed with touchup treatments.

Will my scars be noticeable?
Special care is taken during this procedure to ensure that incision sites are well-selected. With the proper post-surgery care for these incision sites, patients should have virtually unnoticeable scars from this procedure.

When can I return to work?
Most patients should expect to take around two weeks off work. Most swelling and bruising will reside after the first two weeks. If you have an extremely active job, you may need to take more time off than those who have a typical office job.

Why a Personal Consultation Is Important

A facelift may be the right procedure to restore your youthful look and self-confidence. In fact, you may even want to combine this procedure with others to further enhance your physical appearance.

If a Facelift in Charleston, SC sounds like the ideal solution to fix your aging problems, then schedule a personal consultation with Dr. Ulm. This helps to ensure that you know how the surgery can assist you and that you can get an answer to any of your questions regarding this procedure and its recovery.