Dr. Remus Repta, Board Certified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon of Scottsdale, answers the questions that you, the public, have submitted. Dr. Repta and Arizona Foothills Magazine are excited to help bridge the void between the curious public and the expert for safe, informative, and real answers.
If you want your plastic surgery questions answered next, contact us at askthesurgeon@azfoothills.com.
Q.) When do you recommend that someone get a facelift?
A.) Great question. As we age our face undergoes several changes including:
-loss of volume
-skin quality changes including fine lines and pigmentation
-drooping of tissues deep to the skin
This is what we see when evaluate the effects of aging. A face lift is only one component of facial rejuvenation and only really addresses the last drooping tissues. To address the loss of volume fillers or fat grafting is needed. To address the skin quality issues laser resurfacing is often needed. When patients have jowling of the cheeks and the so called “turkey neck” then a face lift is needed to correct that aspect of aging. The right time to do so really depends on each individual as some patients prefer to get this done earlier in their life when the amount of sagging or drooping is mild and others prefer to wait until later. Most women benefit from a face lift between the ages of 40 and 50. Most men benefit from doing so a little later, perhaps 50-60+.
Q.) What are alternative methods to the traditional facelift?
A.) There are not many options for non-invasive treatment for sagging or drooping tissues. Ultherapy is an ultrasound based treatment that can help mild tissue sagging. The benefits is that there is no downtime. The drawback is that it only mildly lifts the tissue and the results only last about a year. In general, I counsel patients to understand that there are not many non-invasive treatment options for tissue lifting and the ones that are available are not as powerful or last as long as traditional face lift surgery. This is important because one can easily spend thousands of dollars chasing non-surgical options when in fact that money could have been used for a more definitive, surgical treatment.
Q.) What is a liquid facelift? Do you recommend them? How are they different from a normal facelift?
A.) A liquid face lift can be any number of non-invasive or minimally invasive treatments to help rejuvenate the appearance of the face. The key thing to remember is that none of the components of a “liquid face lift” will actually lift or tighten sagging tissue. A combination of neurotoxins, such as Botox and fillers, such as Juvederm and Voluma can be used to address the dynamic wrinkles that are caused by certain facial expressions as well as replenish the volume lost as part of the natural aging process. Its important to remember that there are limitation to these non-invasive treatments and overdoing them to achieve more can lead to an artificial or “non-quite right” appearance that should be avoided.
If you would like more more information on facial rejuvenation options please visit drrepta.com
Happy Holidays,
All the best,
For more information on Dr. Repta at AAA Plastic Surgery, click here.
For more information on Dr. Repta’s tummy tuck and body contouring procedures, click here.
To ‘Ask the Surgeon’ yourself, email askthesurgeon@azfoothills.com (all inquiries will remain confidential). The top questions will be featured in each month’s “Q&A Ask The Plastic Surgeon” featured blog.
