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Facelift Ottawa

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The importance of the facelift and necklift.

Most often our face is our first interaction with the people around us. When we first meet someone, our brain immediately scans their face and they do the same with ours. We look for information about the other person such as their age, gender, emotions, identity and even their lifestyle. Non Surgical Hair Lossisingly, multiple studies have shown that facial features are what drive first impressions. In the age of social media, where our face is everywhere, why would anyone not want to put their best face forward?

As an expert in facial surgery, Dr. Javidnia’s entire career has been devoted to surgery of the face and neck. It is crucial that your surgeon is not only experienced in facial surgery, but that they have a deep understanding of how different superficial and deep anatomical structures form the basis for how the face looks, moves, and conveys different expressions. It is easy to think of examples of “unnatural” faces in the media or celebrities, or people in our own lives. This kind of look can often result from surgery performed with a lack of understanding of the intimate details of facial anatomy and physiology. Dr. Javidnia not only understands and appreciates these details, but she also spends a significant amount of time with her patients to understand their goals for their facial appearance prior to surgery.

Face and neck lift Surgery (Rhytidectomy)

The goal of facelifting is to restore a youthful appearance to the face. It is to lift structures in the face and neck that have started to hang and sag over the years. It lifts the jowls (the pouches of skin and tissue that hang down along the jawline on either side of the chin). It lifts and tightens the skin and muscles of the neck which give the dreaded turkey gobbler appearance. But most importantly, it is to restore a rested and youthful appearance to the face without looking over-tightened or unnatural.

Although there are new and great treatments emerging all the time to achieve non-surgical facelift, none of these treatments can provide the extent of effectiveness, and longevity that is achieved with facelift surgery. We often use the above treatments in conjunction with facelifts to give the most effective, natural look, and longest lasting results possible to all of our patients.

How facelift surgery is done

Facelift surgery can be done under general anesthetic or with deep sedation (twilight anesthesia). Dr. Javidnia performs most facelift surgeries at our onsite state of the art private surgical facility with our experienced board-certified anesthesiologists. It is a day surgery which takes several hours to perform depending on how many other procedures are done in conjunction with facelifting. There are various techniques described for facelift surgery. Most technique names refer to how deep the surgery is done along the different layers of the face. Some common terms include superficial or sub-cutanous rhytidectomy which means the skin is lifted and re-draped over the face and excess skin is removed. A SMAS (Superficial Musculoapneurotic System) lift refers to lifting the skin and the top muscle layer. And a deep plane lift refers to lifting the deeper muscle layers and fat pads of the face. Which type of facelift is best for each person is dependent on multiple factors and is decided by you after full consultation with Dr. Javidnia.

All types of facelift involve incisions that start along the hairline on each side of the face and carry down in the natural crease in front of the ear and around and behind the ear. After the skin and deeper structures are lifted, they are repositioned higher in the face with sutures to reverse the effects of aging. After this, the skin is re-draped on the face, excess skin is removed, and incisions are sutured. There may be a separate incision in the natural crease under the chin which may be needed to allow Dr. Javidnia to tighten sagging and separated muscles under the jaws.

Often times, other procedures are performed in conjunction with facelifting to optimize results and appearance. These can include sub-mental liposuction (removing fat from under the chin in the neck) or facial fat augmentation (removing fat from another part of the body such as the belly or upper thighs and injecting it into strategic areas in the face).

After Surgery

After surgery patients stay in the recovery room for a few hours until anesthetic effects wear off. A tight dressing is put around the face and forehead to prevent the collection of fluid under the skin. You will come to our office the day following your surgery to have your dressings changed and incisions cleaned. A lighter dressing will be placed at this point. Bruising, swelling and some numbness of the skin are all expected after surgery. You will be given detailed instructions to help you deal with this initial recovery phase. After 3-4 days you will be able to shower and gently wash your hair and incisions.

By day 7 all dressings will be removed, and we will begin to remove your surgical sutures. By the 10th post-operative day all sutures and dressings will be removed, and most patients will be able to return to work, although there will still be noticeable swelling. By the second post-operative week most patients feel comfortable to return to work and regular social situations. There will be minimal residual swelling which will take several months to resolve. Dr. Javidnia and our office staff will be there to give you instructions, answer your questions, and even help with make-up and tips to help you recover seamlessly and as quickly as possible.

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