Dr. Seckel, I have heard there is a new Non-surgical Face lift. Is that true? Thanks, Denise, Berkley, Ca.
Dear Denise,
The short honest answer is no. A face lift is a surgical procedure, which involves removing excess facial skin and tightening the remaining skin to give the face a fresh young tightened and lifted appearance. A face lift can very effectively rejuvenate the face by correcting the sagging brow, jowls along the jaw line, and loose skin under the chin along the neckline. Beautiful face lift results are possible.
Many enterprising physicians have marketed the new non-surgical facial rejuvenation skin tightening machines such as the Thermage®, luxir, aluma, refirme, and Titan® as providing a non-surgical face lift. The use of the term non-surgical face lift to describe the skin tightening effect of these machines on the facial skin is at best a metaphor and an inaccurate one at that.
The Thermage®, luxir, aluma, refirme, and Titan® skin tightening machines are used to heat the deep collagen in the skin which causes the collagen to shorten and hopefully tighten the skin. The best results are about 30% in about 30% of people and these results require at least 3-5 treatments and 5-7 months to see the effect. This is not a face lift, I would call it a face skin tightening. t is a promising area of non-surgical facial rejuvenation technology.
The other procedure that has been called a non-surgical face lift is the thread lift, feather lift, or Countour lift®. In these procedures a surgical thread is “surgically implanted” under the skin to tighten the face. This is a surgical procedure not a non-surgical face lift.
In my opinion, nothing can give as beautiful a facial rejuvenation result as a well-performed face lift done on the appropriate candidate by a skilled, experienced board certified plastic surgeon.
For further information visit my Boston Plastic Surgery Practice, read Save Your Face or contact me.
Sincerely,
Boston, Massachusetts
Peabody, Massachusetts