Port Orchard Facelift doctors

I am sorry to have to tell you this, but can you say "VooooDoooo"?  There certainly is no science behind the concept of a face bra. Your face is not your breast. Depending on your breast size, a good sports bra can be very helpful in preventing your breast from going south with regular running. I think the sagging changes one might see in the face of those who run/jog a lot has much more to do with the loss of facial fat volume in those who are lean - like runners.

I used to use compression bandages and elastic garments after facelifts, but discontinued the practice years ago. They are uncomfortable. They do not prevent swelling and as they get tighter when swelling does occur, they can cause unwanted creases and abrasions of the skin, with a worst case scenario of skin necrosis. I think they have some value for early facial liposuction in contouring the tissues, but this does not carry the same risks of a facelift    

There are truly multiple considerations to address in answering this question. Good results can be achieved with a high degree of safety by either approach. For someone who is 42 and otherwise healthy, a contemporary general anesthesia technique, performed by a board certified anesthesiologist, is very safe and you will be fully out.

So what are the important considerations? First is probably safety. General anesthesia performed on healthy people by a board certified anesthesiologist is very safe. In fact, it is probably much safer than IV sedation performed by a non-anesthesiologist who is perhaps also trying to do your facelift surgery at the same time. The problem with IV sedation is that well performed facelifts take at least several hours and during that time patients can become uncomfortable and restlesss. This then requires additional sedation and eventually a point is reached where it virtually becomes a general anesthetic, without the benefit of an anesthesiologist. On the other hand, a carefully monitored and titrated sedation, that is performed by an anesthesiologist, can be very safe and effective.

Another consideration is patient comfort with awareness. With a general anesthesia this is not an issue. With IV sedation, there is some degree of awareness at some point during the procedure, and some patients are comfortable with this, others are not. The highly anxious or nervous patient does not sedate easily and this poses problems for patient comfort, as large amounts of sedation may be required to keep that person comfortable. At a certain point this almost becomes general anesthesia and the risks rapidly escalate.

Another consideration is your surgeons preference. After all, you want the person doing your facelift to feel comfortable,  and be completely focused on doing your facelift which is a complex and delicate procedure. Which, as far as I am concerned, is a good reason to have an anesthesiologist present whether you are having sedation or general anesthesia.

And there are also cost considerations. Having an anesthesiologist present means additional cost, which can be as much as a couple of thousand dollars if you are having a long surgery with multiple procedures. In an effort to minimize costs some physicians will offer to do facelifts under oral sedation and local anesthesia. In that situation there is full awareness and certainly some discomfort. Every few months I see a patient who has had one of the heavily marketed low price facelift procedures. They are not happy with the results, and are probably even more unhappy with the experience. So one must ask, was the low cost procedure really such a bargain?

This is an important question, and your surgeon should be able to give you a well reasoned and thoughtful answer. Glib responses and rigid positions are not a good sign. Ultimately your choice of surgeon is much more important than the type of anesthesia.

The term "liquid facelift" generally refers to the use of fillers and botox to achieve facial rejuvination. These procedures ane generally safe and do not have the potential risks associated with a facelift, however they do not accomplish the same things. In addition, if one attempts to get the kind of results that might be achieved with a facelift, then large amounts of filler must be injected. This quickly becomes quite expensive and at a certain point, the results start to look very unnatural and alien like. They are as disconcerting as a poorly performed facelift.

This is not to say that filler, botox, lasers etc don't have their place, it's just that they cannot achieve the degree of change, or types of correction that a well performed facelift can.