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Does a Facelift Result in Less Healthy Skin over Long Run?

asked 2 years ago by mmuofminn in charlotte, nc
Latest answer by Anil R. Shah, MD
Question viewed 754 times
Tags: health, skin care, skin tone

I read an interesting article that spoke of long term damage to skin that has been cut and pulled as part of a facelift. It states that skin will get thinner and will never regain or increase its thickness given that the skin is lifted away from underlying layers in order to tighten the underlying fascia and muscles. Especially so if more than one surgery. It makes common sense that skin may not re-attach itself to underlying tissues like it was before surgery.

17 answers to Does a Facelift Result in Less Healthy Skin over Long Run?

Healthy skin after repeated facelifts

Modern facelifts rely less on pulling really tight, and more on adjusting deep volume and replacing lost volume. Extreme tightness of the skin is avoided. Therefore the effect of repeated excessive stretching that was the guiding principle of the 80's that caused the skin to stretch so much does not happen. That much we do know. Experienced facelift surgeons have seen thousands of post facelift patients in their practice. So these observations are "anecdotal", i.e. not scientific... more

Brent Moelleken, MD
Beverly Hills Plastic Surgeon

www.drbrent.com

No it does not!

If properly done multiple facelifts do not do this. In more than 30 years of doing facelifts and seeing my patients over that period of time, there is no change even with multiple lifts on actresses who tend to have more lifts than the average person. The skin will become less elastic and thinner in all of us even without surgery due to aging.

Toby Mayer, MD
Beverly Hills Facial Plastic Surgeon

www.bevhills.com

Facelift and Skin

A facelift is designed to lift the deeper tissues of the face and reposition it into a better position. Skin will not change after a facelift and this includes patients with acne scars, fine wrinkles, sundamaged skin, thick skin, oily skin, and large pores. Seek skin specific procedures in order to treat the skin.

Anil R. Shah, MD
Chicago Facial Plastic Surgeon

Facelift will not affect health of skin

It is not true that the skin gets less healthy after a facelift. It is important to tighten the muscles and underlying fascia at the time of a facelift to give underlying structural support. The skin reattaches to the underlying tissues just like prior to surgery. The skin itself does not become any thinner after a facelift, but there is a very small amount of fat lost during the actual procedure itself.

William Portuese, MD
Seattle Facial Plastic Surgeon

www.seattlefacial.com

Thin skin after Facelift Surgery

Facial skin will thin secondary to to the normal aging process. A well-done facelift will not cause or accelerate the loss of skin thickness or turgor.

Richard W. Fleming, MD
Beverly Hills Facial Plastic Surgeon

A facelift should not cause the skin to look less healthy over time.

A facelift should involve manipulation and tightening of the SMAS or muscular layer under the skin after a healthy skin flap is developed. The skin is then simply redraped with any excess trimmed, this should not pull the skin too tight and should not affect the quality of the skin. Often this is combined with fat transfer under the flap that could provide stem cells and quite possibly add improvement to skin quality. On the contrary a resurfacing procedure done at the same time as a... more

Robert Schwarcz, MD
New York Oculoplastic Surgeon

It is not the facelift that damages the skin

A well done facelift will have no damaging effects on the skin. It is important to leave an appropriate amount of fat on the lifted skin to help protect the blood vessels that bring nourishment to the skin. However, the big abusers of skin quality are over done CO2 laser resurfacing and too much injectable steroids. The skin of the face has an amazing capacity to heal itself, so your conception of what happens with surgical maneuvers is fortunately not correct. When you are ready to... more

Kenneth D. Steinsapir, MD
Los Angeles Oculoplastic Surgeon

A face lift doesn't harm nor rejuvenate your skin

Mmuofminn A modern face lift will not harm your skin because it doesn't stretch out the skin because: Your skin is not pulled tight. The underlying muscles are lifted to give a more natural longer lasting result. A significant cause for facial sagging is loss of volume in the cheeks and jawline. By replacing this lost volume with i.e. Sculptra, fat, the relative excess in skin is smoothed out requiring less lifting during the face lift. Again, avoiding unnecessary tension on the skin... more

Ran Y. Rubinstein, MD
Manhattan Facial Plastic Surgeon

Skin thickness after Facelift

Since nothing is really done to the skin itself during a facelift, except redraping it smoothly, it does not get thinner as a result of the facelift. What does happen with some techniques is that the underlying fat layer is thinned. This causes the tissues to appear thinner. With newer techniques, the fat, and, thus, the appearance is maintained. The skin does, however, thin with aging and sun damage. For this reason, we recommend skin care to rejuvenate and thicken the skin in... more

Robert T. Buchanan, MD
Highlands Plastic Surgeon

Skin Remains Healthy After Facelift

There is no evidence that skin will not attach to the underlying deep tissues after a facelift and then become less healthy. The blood supply through growth of new capillaries is excellent in the face and nourishment for the skin is not an issue. If anything it gets more nourishment from the growth of new blood vessels. Just remember to protect the skin from sun and use daily skin care products. Regards

Tanveer Janjua, MD
Bedminster Facial Plastic Surgeon

Facelift does not harm skin.

Hi! Facelifts have been done for about 100 years, and so there is a lot of experience. There is absolutely no scientific evidence that a well performed facelift harms or ages the skin. It is possible to interfere with the blood supply of the skin during a facelift, but that is very rare and is considered a very serious complication.

George J. Beraka, MD
Manhattan Plastic Surgeon

Skin and Face Lift

Healing after any surgery follows a set pattern. A facelift, done correctly, should not produce "less healthy skin". Most surgeons now perform the structural tightening of a facelift in the layer below the skin. Then the skin is re-draped, like a sheet on a bed, to conform with the improved jaw line, elevated jowls, and slimmer neck without giving the wind-blown look. There will be a modification of the healing process over time leaving smooth, soft appearing and pliable skin. more

Ricardo Izquierdo, MD
Chicago Plastic Surgeon

Facelifts if done correctly have little impact on the overlying skin

Facelifts if done correctly have little impact on the overlying skin; however, if the skin is stretched too tightly as is done in some facelifts then it can affect the overlying skin texture and quality of the skin. Normal facelifts done today typically involving lifting the muscle and redistributing the fat and are less reliant on pull of the skin itself. In fact, only the excess skin created after securing the muscles and deep tissue should be removed to avoid changes in skin texture. Also... more

Scott Trimas, MD
Jacksonville Facial Plastic Surgeon

Skin quality after Facelift

A facelift should not have any adverse effect on your skin quality. However, addressing the skin is an extremely vital part of facial rejuvenation. Think of it like the canvas of a painting. You want to make sure your skin matches the facelift because it does not look natural to have poor skin after the effect of gravity has been addressed. In the majority of my facelifts, I do a fractionated ablative laser (Fraxel Repair) with the facelift. This restores the skin quality (color, tone,... more

John Burns, MD
Dallas Plastic Surgeon

Not quite correct

I have to agree that the concept of skin being 'less healthy" after face lift surgery is not quite correct. Long story short: as skin heals after a facelift it does re-attach to the underlying structures (fascia, muscle) via a process of fibrosis (scar tissue). This is actually "good" scar tissue since it is one of the processes that helps hold the results of the facelift procedure in place. The re-attached skin is actually healthy since part of the fibrosis process involves... more

Kamran Jafri, MD
New York Facial Plastic Surgeon

Repeated facelifts and their effect

To some degree this may be true and it does make some scientific sense that repeated episodes of fibrosis from flap elevation and rearrangement may result in "aged" skin. However, I am not aware of any study which has "proven" this.

Otto Joseph Placik, MD
Chicago Plastic Surgeon

Long term effects of facelifting on the skin

There is nothing to my knowledge to supprt the concept you have described. This just isn't something you see in real clinical practice of plastic surgery after 20+years of doing facelifts.