Face Lifts are the gold standard for facial skin tightening

There are some patients who will definitely benefit from a surgical facelift to address lax tissues and skin that accompanies aging. However, some patients with mild signs of aging and good skin elasticity may benefit from laser 'skin tightening' treatments alone, such as with ReFirme treatments of Titan treatments. 

Realize that these non surgical treatments deliver gradual reasults and that you should be patient with them. If you desire more immediate results, I would recommend you undergo a facelift.

Most modern approaches to the face tighten and replace volume. The patient's own tissues placed into hollow areas give the longest lasting, most stable results. LiveFill and fat injection are two techniques that use the patient's own tissues to restore fullness to the face, and are often used in combination with facial tightening procedures.

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Hello,

Lasers tighten but that tightening varies and will not approach that of a properly performed facelift. Then again some patients either do not want the facelift surgery as it is "real surgery" or are too young to benefit maximally by a real facelift.

Tightening without a facelift operation is pretty good using a C02 laser, but this is on the higher end of lasers regarding recovery time. Then again it has a ten year track record and works. Phenol peels also tighten nicely but can be hard to control and dangerous. I would steer clear of them.

Lesser lasers and light treatments tighten less but are less invasive.

The takeaway point here is that the tradeoff of invasiveness versus effectiveness is still in play for facial skin treatments.

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Ms Anne

The gold standard treatment for jowls and skin laxity was the face-lift.  Now there are several other treatments that can give very good rejuvenative results with less invasive procedures, such as: 

• Micro-liposuction of jowl fat
• Skin tightening with laser resurfacing
• Chemical peels
• Fractionated lasers
• Fillers to replace and lift soft tissue volume in the face

I recommend that you consult with a board certified plastic surgeon who is comfortable with both invasive and minimally invasive techniques for facial rejuvenation to determine if you are a good candidate.

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I assume you are talking about changes that are occurring and noticeable to you as you age. In reality, the reason why any of us looka certain way at any point in time has to do simply with anatomy. it involves the bony skeleton, the muscle tone, the amount and distrbution of fat, the amount and quality of the skin. You and your surgeon have to separate out the factors that are affecting you. One factor may be dominant that another. For example the loss of fat in some who is young but losing weight or perhaps the loss of skin elasticity due to your exposure to the sun or genetic background. There are a multitude of remedies for each component of the anatomical cause from various peel and resurfacing agents and treatments that essentially tighten the skin,by inducing the scarring or collagen deposition process to various lifting procedures like midface lifts, to volume resoration with implants and fillers like fat grafts. Surgeons have favorite approaches but it is important for you to discuss the options thoroughly since each has its own pros and cons. The 'gold' standard for pure skin quality tightening is the CO2 laser.

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Like many on this forum have indicated,there are many factors that contribute to facial aging (intrinsic aging that occurs with time, sun exposure, smoking, gravity, etc.) Depending on your goals, there are different options for you, both operative and minimally invasive. It sounds like based on your desire to correct sagging cheeks and jowls, you would benefit greatly from a cheek lift (or as i term it, a mini facelift)- In this scenario, there is a small incision in front of your ear, which is used to tighten the deeper layer (SMAS-muscular layer) and skin. This procedure, which takes 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours and can be done under local anesthesia will effectively address these areas for you with not much down time - this has become a popular procedure in my practice. With all that said, you still may benefit from additional skin care modalities (fractional resurfacing) and injectible fillers to enhance your results.