It’s all about balance. Each part of the face ages at a different rate, which is why you should tend to changes as they occur. “You need to be selective as to what you have done and when you do it,” says Englewood, NJ, plastic surgeon Geoffrey Tobias, MD. “If you only focus on your eyes and not the brows or upper cheeks, your surgeries may be doing you a disservice. You don’t want a disjunction between one feature and another,” he says. “Addressing each feature at the right time—when changes are noticeable— allows the face to age as a whole,” says Troy, MI, plastic surgeon Anthony Youn, MD.
Delay Aging in Your 40s with a Mini-Facelift: In your 40s, if you have a mini-facelift, the rate at which the lower part of the face ages may be lessened.
It’s becoming more routine for women in their 40s to have small facelift-like procedures—known as a mini-lift or short-scar lifts—to correct the initial signs of aging and give better definition. “These procedures are different than the traditional facelift. They’re less invasive and concentrate just on the upper or lower part of the face with well hidden incisions,” says Dr. Geoffrey Tobias. Like a traditional facelift, during a mini-facelift, the underlying muscles are tightened, which provides a youthful boost to the brows and cheeks. Since the face has not yet aged to maximum capacity in the 40s, a mini-lift keeps you looking younger for longer.
- Will you need to do it again? Most likely—you can expect your results to last about eight to 12 years. The more elastic your skin is, the longer the results will hold up. If a second facelift is required, often just loose skin is removed and the muscles are not addressed, making the surgery less invasive.
Delay Aging in Your 50s and 60s with a Traditional Facelift: In Your 50s or 60s, if you have a traditional facelift, the face will age slower and you’ll look at least 10 years younger than you really are.
Every plastic surgeon and facial plastic surgeon has his or her own variation on a facelift, but the bottom line is the same: to restore natural curvatures to the features while maintaining an appropriate amount of volume in the right places. Just because there’s a large percentage of women tackling aging in their 40s doesn’t rule out facelifts in the 50- and 60-something patient. “Women in their 50s and 60s come in for a facelift after they’ve exhausted injectables and noninvasive treatments and nothing seems to be working,” says Highland Park, IL, plastic surgeon Steven Bloch, MD.
- Will You Need to Do It Again? You may have to have some excess skin removed in your 70s, if it bothers you, but New York facial plastic surgeon Andrew Jacono, MD, says that a traditional lower facelift retightens the muscles so the results should last 10 to 15 years.
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