Face Lifts

Facelift Calgary In time, gravity, sun exposure, and the stresses of daily life take their toll on our faces: deep creases appear beside the mouth, the jaw line slackens, and folds and fat deposits appear on the neck. Facelifts counteract these problems by removing fat and tightening skin and muscles, giving your face a fresher, youthful look -- after surgery, some patients appear as much as ten or 15 years younger.

Facelifts are most often performed on people in their 40s-60s; those in their 70s or 80s can have facelifts as well. The procedure can be combined with others (brow lift, eyelid surgery, nose reshaping) for more dramatic results, or it can be restricted to the neck (neck lift) if the patient’s problems center there.

Patients who smoke, take medications or have certain medical conditions such as high blood pressure, blood clotting problems or the tendency to form excessive scars should discuss potential risks with their surgeons. Patients with short hair may want to consider letting it grow before surgery to better conceal scars.

Facelifts are usually outpatient procedures and may be performed in an office-based facility, surgery center or hospital, typically under local anesthesia combined with a sedative. The procedure itself varies depending on the surgeon and the patient’s facial structure (i.e. where the incisions are placed, whether one or both sides of the face are worked on at once, in which order the steps are performed).

Results of a facelift do not last forever; you may want to have another procedure in five or ten years. But in another sense, the effects are permanent; years later, your face will continue to look better than if you had never had the procedure.

Brow Lifts

One of the earliest signs of aging is the drooping or lowering of the eyebrows. A brow lift, also known as a temporal brow lift, is a surgical procedure to reduce the drooping and sagging of the outer brow line. This technique is ideal for patients who are primarily concerned with the sagging at the ends of their eyebrows.

During a brow lift, incisions are made in the hairline at the temples. The procedure removes excess skin which lifts the outer corners of the forehead, and may be performed using endoscopic techniques. An endoscopic brow lift will not raise the middle of the brow, but it will instead help to alleviate the creases at the outer corners of the eyes, more commonly known as crow’s feet.

An endoscopic brow lift is less invasive than a traditional brow lift and carries a lower risk of infection and other complications. As with any face lift procedure, the ideal brow lift candidate is someone with some elasticity to the skin and a strong bone structure.

Blepharoplasty (Eyelid Surgery)

Eyelid Surgery (Blepharoplasty) Calgary Blepharoplasty can rejuvenate puffy, sagging or tired-looking eyes by removing excess fat, skin and muscle from the upper and lower eyelids. It may be performed for cosmetic reasons or to improve sight by lifting droopy eyelids out of the patient's field of vision. Blepharoplasty can be combined with BOTOX® treatments to raise the eyebrows or reduce the appearance of wrinkles, crow's feet or dark circles under the eyes.

The procedure is usually performed in an office with local anesthesia and lasts 45 minutes to a few hours depending on how much work is done. Incisions are made along the eyelids in inconspicuous places (in the creases of the upper lids, and just below the lashes on the lower lids). The surgeon removes excess tissue through these incisions and then stitches them closed with fine sutures. In the case that no skin needs to be removed, the surgeon will likely perform a transconjunctival blepharoplasty.

Facial Implants

Whether we notice it or not, full cheeks are often a part of how we judge a person’s face. Cheek implants can have a major impact on the appearance and self-confidence of a person whose cheeks have thinned or sunken due to age, illness or other causes. Likewise, the chin helps provide harmony to the facial features. Patients often seek a smaller nose when, in fact, a chin augmentation provides a balance to the facial features.

Implant sizes and shapes to augment the cheek and chin areas are tailored to each patient’s desired appearance. The implants are placed during an outpatient procedure under local or general anesthesia, which usually takes less than an hour to perform. Your doctor will make the necessary incisions in inconspicuous locations to allow for minimal scarring.