A facelift is typical a procedure to tighten both the skin and the underlying fatty tissue and muscle of the face and the neck to restore a youthful appearance to the face. One aspect of facial aging is loss of facial fat and this can be restored with the use of Fillers like Juvederm, which is placed in discreet areas to improve certain lines and wrinkles.
A volumizer like Sculptra can also be
used perhaps more effectively to restore volume that is lost with aging. It is used over a larger area than the fillers and can in some cases give the appearance of having had a facelift because the skin is filled out rather than pulled tight. It may be more appropriate for those patients whose primary problem is loss of facial fat rather than laxity. Everyone has a combination of problems but sometimes one problem is prevalent to a greater degree.
Some patients are candidates for Thermage which can be used to tighten the skin and which can be used in conjunction with both the fillers and the volumizers. Thermage does rely on the ability of the skin to produce collagen and this creates tightening. You do have to wait about 4 months or so to see the results and the effect will vary from person to person.
In some cases a short scar facelift is ideal because it gives the results of a traditional facelift with a shorted scar and a shorter recovery and it can be performed in some cases under local anesthesia or very light sedation so the recovery time is shorter.
