Facelift and Browlift Surgery Procedures and Techniques

In the traditional facelift, performed under a general anesthetic, a surgical incision will be made completely round your hairline and past the front of your ears. It is even possible that the incision will extend under your chin. The skin is then carefully separated from the facial muscles, any excess fat is removed, and then the muscles are tightened before the skin is pulled back. Any excess skin will be trimmed away and the skin stitched back to the original incision. In order to keep the face protected and the skin in place, tight bandages are wound around the face, which generally have to remain in place for at least two days. This sounds a very aggressive procedure and, in many ways, it can be. It is, however, very successful and can have truly dramatic results. There is likely to be scarring, but often most of this will be covered by the hairline and it will generally fade quite significantly. A browlift carried out in the traditional surgical manner will usually involve an incision from ear to ear, the lifting of the forehead and the removal of excess skin in the same way as with a full facelift.

In recent years, two new techniques have been increasingly employed to produce similar results but with less scarring and quicker recovery times.

The first of these newer techniques is generally known as MACS, an acronym for Minimal Access Cranial Suspension. The prime difference for the patient with the MACS procedure is that the incisions made in the skin are far smaller than with the traditional surgical procedure. The incisions will be very short surgical cuts through which the excess fat can be removed. As only a very limited amount of excess skin needs to be removed, there will be very little scarring and the result will be a much more natural appearance to the area after the procedure. Because this process is far less invasive and aggressive, some clinics will carry out MACS procedures with local anesthetic and light sedation, again shortening the recovery time.

The final procedure that is now commonly employed in both facelift and browlift cosmetic surgery has also become more prevalent in other surgical fields - namely, the process known as Keyhole Surgery.

Keyhole surgery entails the surgeon making even smaller cuts than with MACS. Having made several very tiny cuts into the skin, an endoscope - a light and camera lens affixed to a small, thin, flexible tube - is then passed through beneath the skin. Whilst looking at the area under operation, the surgeon can perform the necessary procedures by using special operating implements passed through the same cuts. This keyhole surgery is ideal when only small areas need to be operated upon but it does permit muscles to be tightened in specific areas with almost no scarring. Again, the patient's recovery time is usually considerably shorter than in the previous methods.