Facelift vs. Fillers

It’s a difficult decision. Should you take the step of having a surgical face lift or can fillers provide you with enough volume to appear refreshed? It’s a question best answered by a board certified plastic surgeon such as Dr. Lee Thornton with Meridian Plastic Surgery in Meridian, Mississippi.

By Beverly Brooks
and Lee Thornton, MD
The Plastic Surgery Channel

Many things are taken into consideration, including skin laxity and facial volume. In some cases Hyaluronic Acid (Juvederm Voluma^® XC ), or harvested fat may be enough to fill out fine lines. Sometimes a combination of fillers and fat is the perfect mix!

Dr. Thornton says there’s a tipping point, when it comes to these decisions. When facial fillers are not doing the job and the patient isn’t getting the results they want, it may be time for a facelift. Modern facelift procedures are taking the fear out of surgery with better placed incision sites and quicker healing times.

Fillers For Volume

JUVÉDERM VOLUMA^® XC  is the first and only FDA-approved injectable gel to instantly add volume to your cheek area to correct age-related volume loss in adults over the age of 21. It can provide contour and a subtle lift for up to two years with optimal treatment.

Restalyne can be used to add volume and fullness to the skin to correct moderate to severe facial wrinkles and folds, such as the lines from your nose to the corners of your mouth (nasolabial folds).

What Can Botox Do?

BOTOX^® Cosmetic is a prescription medicine that is injected into muscles and used to temporarily improve the look of both moderate to severe crow’s feet lines and frown lines in adults.

Many people choose to have the injections about every four months. Botox doesn’t kick in immediately upon injection, but rather over the next 3 to 5 days.

Facelift To Freshen Your Face

In the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s old facelift techniques were used which pulled the face laterally. Since the mid 1990’s many surgeons have adopted the vertical face lift designed to defy gravity. A face lift directed in a vertical  fashion, provides a more natural appearance; improving the neck, face and eyes in a balanced way.

“When you look at surgery, it’s more about dealing with gravity and the more extreme effects of wrinkling or dropping of the face; it works by shifting the structure of the face,” says Dr. Thornton. “There comes a time when fillers are no longer valid, and if you want to get to the result the patient is looking for, you’ve got to abandon the fillers and go to a facelift or other surgical procedures for the face.”

The bottom line: we all want a natural result! “When I have a good candidate, I tell my patients, without any qualms, that when you’re healed from this facelift, you should be able to sit next to someone at a dinner table and they will have no idea you had a face lift!”