Return of the Face-Lift: & Other Ways To Avoid Growing Old

With all the nifty new wrinkle injections on the market – and the recent study showing that completely non-invasive laser treatments are an effective anti-aging treatment - one would think that the traditional surgical face lift would go the way of … big shoulder pads and Flashdance hair.

But surprisingly, it hasn't.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) reports that the traditional face lift is actually on the rise – increasing in women by some 14% and in men by 16%, particularly among baby boomers, from 2006 to 2007.

Meanwhile this same 12 month period saw a dip in the use of fillers and injectable wrinkle treatments.

So what’s behind the change? The short answer is that as good as fillers are, they simply can’t do everything.

“ The injectable wrinkle treatments do buy you some time, but the clock keeps ticking and eventually it catches up with you – and there are some effects of aging that simply can’t be corrected with a filler or a wrinkle relaxer,” says New York City plastic surgeon Dr. Darrick Antell.

Indeed experts say if you're a boomer whose staring in the mirror at sagging jowls, loose “turkey neck”, a droopy brow and eyelid overhang, and cheeks that are slowly sinking south, it's going to require some serious movement of skin to bring back the glow of youth.

“Face lifts are critical to lift and reposition skin and underlying tissues, “ says ASPS President Richard D’Amico, MD. And that re-positioning simply can’t be achieved with an injectable filler.

The New Nip & Tuck

And although illers like Juvederm and Restylane , along with wrinkle relaxers like Botox have certainly owned the anti-aging headlines these past few years, they aren’t the only advances in the medical pursuit of youth.

Indeed, another reason for the renewed interest in the traditional nip and tuck: It isn’t so traditional anymore.

“The whole experience is easier overall – there is less recovery time, better anesthesia, fewer potential complications, and shorter incisions – we’re now able to do maximum lifting with minimal cutting and virtually no visible scars ,” says Antell.

In one face lift study of identical twins published in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, researchers found that when used appropriately the newer, less dramatic, less traumatic short scar lift surgery accomplishes just as much as the more complex face lift surgery of the past.

Perhaps even more important – from a patient’s point of view : Gone is that image of the aging Hollywood star, her face mummified in bandages, heading down to a Mexican hide-a-way for 3 months of healing.

Today, short scar face-lift patients can be out and about in a matter of days and weeks – not months.

“Most patients who have the short scar lift can be back at work in 10 days to two weeks after surgery," says Antell.

Results That Last

Finally, if there's one thing Boomers can be proud of it's squeezing every last moment out of everything we experience -including youth, and anti aging treatments. So maybe the real reason behind the come-back of the face-lift: The results last.

“ For some patients who have a lift in their 50’s or 60's, this may be the one and only procedure they will ever need,” says Antell.

By comparison, injectable wrinkle treatments have to be repeated in order to maintain results, sometimes as often as twice a year.

And while some of the newer injectables are claiming permanent results (they cause the body to kick in and produce more of it’s own natural wrinkle filling collagen) this still won’t stop the sags and the droops from coming.

Indeed, Antell says if you want to keep the glow of youth from dimming, it's likely that you'll eventually need a face-lift anyway , so, he says, " Why not do it sooner rather than later."

Of course finances may be one very good reason to put it off. While wrinkle relaxers and fillers cost from $700 to $1,500 a treatment, a face lift will set you back about $10,000 or more - which, you may already know is at least the price of a few annual vacations reliving your youth in Woodstock. ( Or Anaheim, Cleveland, Boston, etc).

Still, if you do the math, the savings are really only temporary. If you keep up with your injectable treatments, you could hit that $10,000 mark in 6 to 7 years – and, as Antell has already pointed out, at the end of the day - or the decade - you may still find yourself in need of a lift.

“At a certain point in the aging process, injectable wrinkle treatments can no longer help you,” says Antell.

Learning To Love Your Age

Of course there is one more option – and maybe it’s the one that makes the most sense for most of us. And that is to simply learn to love your wrinkles, sags and droops – viewing it all not as a sign of aging, but simply a part of the life cycle, one in which you are lucky enough to still be a part of!

And on that note, here’s an interesting fact worth remembering: NYU Medical Center psychiatrist Dr. Virginia Sadock says that as time passes, your significant other won’t really see all the lines and wrinkles anyway. Why?

Says Sadock: “Research shows that when we grow old with someone, our current vision of them is always a compilation of how they looked when we first met them, and how they look now.”

And so, she says, the years will pass much more gracefully than you might think – particularly in the eyes of the beholder who means the most.


Click here for more information on the short scar lift.

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