Aging in the neck and jowl area occurs in everyone…eventually. Loose skin in the neck and jowl area with the development of smile lines is the bane of many women. As a result, the promise of an effective surgical solution that is relatively simple and has a minimal recovery is overwhelmingly appealing. Such a concept has to a slew of anti-aging procedures that I would call a family of Rapid Recovery Facelifts.The Lifestyle Lift is a franchose approach to offering a facial rejuvenation procedure. It is based on an in-office ‘facelift’ procedure that can be done alone or in conjunction with additional procedures. Because it is offered under local anesthesia, it does not need to be done in a hospital or surgery center. The procedure is a variation of a facelift operation that has been around for decades, a scaled down version of the traditional full facelift. One can recover faster from it because it does less. Less invasive in facelift surgery means less is done…and hopefully it is done in someone who needed less to begin with.
The procedure involves an incision that starts at the front of the ear and goes under the earlobe and then behind the ear. The incision creates an S shape which gives it its name in Europe, known as the S-lift. Once these cuts are made, the skin is undermined several inches in front of and below the earlobe.Then two circular sutures gather up and tighten the loose SMAS (superficial muscular aponeurtoic system), which is often confused with loose muscle which it is not. This is a layer of tissue above the muscle, your facial muscles don’t and can’t stretch out. While lifting and tightening the SMAS is commonly done in most every form of a facelift, it is not proven to result in a longer lasting result. To enhance the neck area, the neck skin is pulled up and liposuction is done if needed.
Like many things that are heavily marketed, the Lifestyle Lift has its proponents and critics. This can be seen by searching the name on the internet. As an operation, however, limited types of facelifts do have a valuable role in facial rejuvenation. Not every patient needs or wants a fuller type of facelift. Facelifting is not, nor should be, an operation that is performed the same on everyone. ‘Mini-facelifts’ are best reserved for patients with earlier signs of aging, not advanced problems such as turkey necks. Patient satisfaction from these type pf procedures is based on good patient selection and an educated patient.
Patients should also realize that the Lifestyle Lift is a corporate-promoted operation whose technique is not necessarily novel or unique. Many plastic surgeons offer similar type facelift procedures that just don’t have a branded name, but that doesn’t make them any less effective or useful.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana