Plastic surgery procedures are anything but cookie-cutter. When we consult with patients in our office near San Jose, our primary objective is to gain the fullest understanding of their goals that is possible. This enables us to adequately tailor a treatment plan to achieve the desired outcome. Often, this requires that we look beyond the immediate concern and predict how an improvement in one area may affect an adjacent feature.

When a patient comes into our office to discuss facial rejuvenation via facelift surgery, there is often a generalization in terms of aging. The face ages as a whole, yes, but it is also necessary to observe how aging has affected individual features. The eyes may age in a different way than the lower face, and so on. Facelift surgery is not all-inclusive; it focuses on the mid and lower regions of the face only. Because the neck is a frame for the lower face, it pays to consider how changing one may affect the other. In so doing, we may conclude that a combination of face and neck lifting is the ideal protocol for maximum impact.

The Advantages of Combined Lifts

Aging often affects the lower face more so than areas such as the forehead and eyes. This may occur due to sun exposure and the natural decline in collagen and elastin that occurs with age. As tissue droops to the lower face and jowls set in, the tissue on the neck often ages simultaneously but in a way that makes the skin appear paper-thin.

During facelift surgery, incisions are made in front of and sometimes also around the ears. Through these small nicks, instruments reach deeper tissues to raise them higher, back along the cheekbones where contour has been lost. By raising these tissues along the mid-face, the fatty tissue and skin that have been sagging from the jawline improve or disappear altogether. This technique is advantageous alone but does not address the full effects of aging below the jawline.

During a neck lift, tissue beneath the chin that has developed into submental fullness may be accessed through the same incisions made to lift facial tissue. Sometimes, an additional incision is made just under the chin. Through these incisions, neck tissue is lifted higher with excess being trimmed away to reduce or eliminate horizontal neck bands and a sagging “turkey neck.”

Keep your neck and face aligned in beauty with a combination facelift and neck lift. For more information, call 408-559-4700.