Facelift/Rhytidectomy

This procedure involves the tightening of facial and neck skin and muscles and the removal of excess skin. Often a rhytidectomy is done in conjunction with other facial cosmetic surgeries such as brow and forehead lift, blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery), chin augmentation, liposuction, and rhinoplasty (surgery of the nose).

A facelift can be performed any time after signs of aging appear. The surgery can be performed in a physician's office, an outpatient surgical facility or a hospital, depending upon the physician and patient's preference. It can be done under general anaesthesia with the patient asleep or local anaesthesia in which the area is numbed and the patient remains awake.

In the basic procedure, the surgeon works on one side of the face at a time. Incisions are made inside the hairline at the temple, running in front of the ear then around the earlobe and behind the ear, ending in the hair of the scalp. Loose skin is separated from the underlying tissue and is pulled up and back and excess skin is removed. Connective tissue and sagging muscles are tightened, and in some cases, fat deposits are removed from beneath the chin and neck. This may necessitate an additional small incision under the chin. Tiny sutures are used to close the incisions.

A rhytidectomy may take from three to five hours or more depending on whether other procedures are done at the same time.

Patients who are operated on in a hospital are released the day of surgery or after an overnight stay.