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.
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.
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 new blood vessels growing into the skin thereby providing it with all the nourishment it needs - if it didn't then the skin would necrose (die off) soon after the surgery.
I do think this is an interesting thought but factors such as the natural aging process, normal and expected changes in post surgical skin, patient's age and genetics, history of smoking, etc. would all have to be factored in to really arrive at any correct conclusions.
Thanks,
Dr. Kamran Jafri
Mmuofminn
A modern face lift will not harm your skin because it doesn't stretch out the skin because:
Face lift surgery doesn't rejuvenate your skin. I often recommend skin resurfacing either before or after face lift surgery. This plumps up the collagen, smooths out lines and eliminates spider veins and age spots.
Make sure your plastic surgeon is well versed in the newer face lifting techniques. Stay away from face lifts that just pull on your skin such as many of the "mini" lifts.
Good luck!
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 skin flap is made might run the risk of damaging the skin. A well done facelift should not damage the skin.
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