If you are considering getting a facelift you may wonder what sort of prep work you need to do. Fortunately, this guide exists to provide five solid things to be prepared for when choosing to undergo a facelift.
Know Your Doctor Ahead of Time and Ask Questions
A facelift is a major procedure, meaning you should find the perfect doctor for you. Analyze reviews and undergo consultations with multiple professionals. Check your doctor’s credentials for board certification, ASAPS membership, and whether or not they have finished a fellowship in plastic surgery.
As for questions, the most vital one would be “Am I a good candidate?” Other pertinent questions might concern procedure location, anesthesia, recommended techniques, and even what recovery is typically like.
There Are Several Facelift Techniques
There are three major terms doctors use when describing surgical facelifts:
- Comprehensive. This lifts and tightens the upper face, lower face, and neck.
- Mini/Lower. This affects the face’s bottom third and entails shorter incisions and less removed skin than a comprehensive lift. This is swifter and less invasive but less enduring than a comprehensive lift.
- Cheek/Midface. This entails minimal incisions and focuses on the cheekbones.
There are also non surgical face lift approaches like:
- Fillers
- Lasers and IPL (Intense Pulsed Light Therapy)
- Kybella (injected deoxycholic acid).
- Botox
- ThermiTight
- Ultherapy
- Sculptra
Each of these is an option for patients ill-suited to a surgical approach.
Recovery Takes Time
You will need someone to drive you home and at least one person staying nearby for the first 24-48 hours after your discharge. Having a trusted friend or even a nurse stay near for the first week or so can be a godsend as there will be a lot that you will need help for. Pain can vary with each patient but usually fade after several days. Your surgeon may prescribe pain meds that you transition over to OTC after a few days.
While the doctor will inform you about exertion limits, you should abstain from hefting anything heavier than a gallon on week one. You will also need a driver for post-op appointments. Post-op swelling or bruising is a normal but temporary experience. Most facelift patients are back to normal after three weeks.
Obey Pre-Op Instructions
Your surgeon will provide instructions and also a list of medications to abstain from. You want your home ready upon your return and to make things as easy on you as possible; that means healthy, soft foods requiring minimal chewing. Pre-emptively fill any medicines your surgeon prescribes before the procedure so you have them handy.
A good list of things to have for your recovery period includes:
- Buttoned pajamas. Avoid clothes that go over the head.
- Hand mirror. Use this with your bathroom mirror to see where you need to apply ointments and peroxide behind your ears and neck.
- Hairpins. Unless you are bald, you will want to keep your hair in one place.
- Peroxide and cotton swabs to keep infection away and the swabs can apply it.
- Witch Hazel. This is a peroxide stand-in for hairy spots; peroxide bleaches hair.
- Hot water bag. This is to hold ice.
- Gentle soap. You want a soft soap to wash your face after the first week.
You Might Lose Some Hair
You must wait at least one day before washing your hair and at least six weeks before getting it cut and/or color. Hair loss of any sort along the incision sites is rare and depends on the procedure and incision sites. While hair around the temples can sometimes thin out, surgeons plan out their incisions to minimize loss/thinning.
Wrapping Things Up
So that covers some of the things any potential facelift patient should know. Research who will perform the procedure, which procedures suit your needs, how long you will be in recovery, follow your surgeon’s pre- and post-op instructions, settle your prescriptions and recovery shopping list before the procedure and understand that your hair might suffer. Cover these aspects and your facelift and recovery from the procedure should go wonderfully.