When it comes to facelift surgery, the one brand name that many people recognize is that of the Lifestyle Lift. While most people don’t really know what it is, they know the name as a result of marketing efforts by the company that has promoted it since its inception over a decade ago. Like many products and services, the internet is full of many positive and negative reviews of the Lifestyle Lift. For a wide variety of reasons, many plastic surgeons have taken exception to the branding and promotion of the Lifestyle Lift. While there are certainly economic competitive factors at work in its professional criticisms, its negative perception amongst plastic surgeons goes deeper than just that one issue.
In the November 2012 issue of Plastic Surgery Practice, an article entitled ‘Face Off’ was published that offered one viewpoint to the Lifestyle Lift. This article interviewed nine plastic surgeons who provided their collective opinions and was written as a counterpoint to a previously published article in the same publication entitled “Defending the Lifestyle Lift’ by a single plastic surgeon.* The article covers six counterpoints about the procedure. Their points may be summarized as follows.
The Lifestyle Lift is purported to be a new and revolutionary procedure. The surgical technique is one of a variety of well known ‘mini-facelift’ techniques that results in facial rejuvenation with emphasis on improving the jowls and neck. There are no published reports in the medical literature over the past ten years on the Lifestyle Lift which report on its novel technique or its long-term outcomes.
The photography of Lifestyle Lift results may not accurately reflect what is being promoted. Many of the patient sappear to have had more procedures done than what any facelifting can achieve and could not be performed in its approximate one hour time frame. The company has now added in fine print statements that the patients shown may have had more extensive procedures.
The Lifestyle Lift is a safer facelift method. Because the procedure may be performed under local or light sedation anesthesia, the inference is that this is safer than having the procedure done under general anesthesia. However, Lifestyle Lift centers are not known to have accreditation by any office or surgery center-based surgical facility…at least not yet on a national basis. Conversely, board-certified plastic surgeons are required to have such accreditation if they are to remain members in good standing.
Outcomes, particularly long-term, of the Lifestyle Lift are undocumented beyond a few months. The criticisms here are largely anectodal and from numerous sources of dissatisfied patients. While every surgeon ‘sells’ surgery to some degree, the inference is that a corporate owner may have a higher priority for numbers than outcomes.
The Lifestyle Lift uses undocumented advertising claims. Promoting improved safety, a quicker recovery, and a procedure that is done in about an hour are the backbone of its marketing message. The critics counter that there are no clinical studies that support these assertions and that such promotions run askew of the ethical advertising guidelines of the American Medical Association.
The company behind the Lifestyle Lift is litiginous. Numerous examples are cited in which legal action has been taken to remove or suppress written commentaries about the procedure from different companies and surgeons. Such responses to criticism are believed to run counter to the principle of free speech.
The Lifestyle Lift has been done on tens of thousands of patients over the past decade all across the U.S. The corporate promotion of any surgical technique is bound to run into a large number of critics, both from patients and competing surgeons. Such criticisms are bound to exist, even in the face of many satisfied patients, as pleasing patients in large numbers becomes precariously difficult when high expectations are set by how it is promoted.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana
- To gain proper perspective the original article on Defending the Lifestyle Lift should be reviewed.