Facelifts are known by many different names: rhytidectomy, facelift, cervico-facial lift, face-and-necklift, lower facelift, etc. Then there are many gimmicky names that are designed to sell the procedure to the public and are best avoided. There is no such thing as a “weekend lift”, “no-scar facelift”, “quicko-facelift”, “acme facelift”, etc. These are creations of the slick advertising surgeon, all too common and best avoided at all costs.
Tempus fugit: aging of the face is inevitable and inexorable. Or as Hippocrates so succinctly put it: “ars longa, vita brevis”. With the steady march of time, there is loosening of skin, tendons, deeper supporting structures as well as changes in bones, resulting in the well-recognized changes of aging that affect our face and neck. From forehead lines and creases, to drooping brows and eyelids, to crow’s feet to deep nasolabial and melolabial folds, to jowls, to loss of the jawline, to double and triple chins to neck laxity and bands. And that is just a brief outline of aging, the full discussion of which would take a textbook to discuss. It affects ladies and chaps with equal remorseless persistence!