Facelift and mini or midface lifts work in different areas

A midface lift works to pull up your cheek so that your nasolabial folds are improved and your cheek is lifted. This can also improve the way your lower eyelid appears in relation to your cheek.  he dark circles and bags under your eyes can be improved as well.

A mini lift is a variation of the facelift but just not as extensive and usually not as aggressive. A minilift limits the amount of dissection in front and below the ears and usually does not entail lifting the muscle and going deeper. The effects are also less significant as opposed to a full facelift. 

A face lift extends the dissection much more and often entails elevating the platysma muscle smas layer to get a more definitive pull of the face. The recovery from a full face lift is more involved most of the time compared to a miniface lift. But variations between the two really depends on the person and the surgeon doing the procedure.

There are many variations and degrees of aggressiveness that can be carried out during this procedure. The best way to know what will take place is to really sit down and talk with your surgeon about what he is going to do. For the midface lift, I prefer to volumize the face with fillers like fat or dermal fillers like restylane, radiesse, perlane, and juvederm.

A face lift (also known as a face and neck lift) can reverse many features of the aging face and neck. The most dramatic improvement is seen in the jaw-line and the neck. Face lift incisions are carefully placed within the natural creases in front, within, and behind the ear. After re-tightening of the deeper layers, excess skin is removed from both sides and the incisions are carefully repaired. Most experienced plastic surgeons perform a ‘deep-plane’ face lift, which involves a thorough tightening of the sagging muscles of the lower face and neck, and can be custom tailored to the specific needs of each person.

A mini-lift (such as S-lift, Lifestyle lift, Quick lift) is a more limited technique of lifting the face with shorter incisions and less skin removal. Mini lifts improve the same area as a face lift does but to a lesser degree and with a shorter duration. People with minimal skin laxity (typically early to mid 40s) may be good candidates for this procedure. However, because of the shorter incisions, more conservative tightening of the deeper layers, and less skin removal, this technique is not as effective or as long-lasting as a deep plane face lift. According to the RealSelf consumer reviews, the vast majority (86%) of those who had traditional face lifts said that it was worth it, yet only less than half (48%) of those who had the more limited Lifestyle lift felt that it was worth it.

A midface lift (also known as cheek lift) differs from both face lift and mini face lift in that it primarily addresses aging around the cheekbones. Using minimal incisions, the droopy cheek tissue can be lifted up back over the cheekbone thus restoring the more prominent youthful cheek contours. Midface lifts can be combined with fat grafting to the cheeks to help improve early facial aging with minimal incisions.

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A comprehensive face/neck lift addresses the:

• Jowls
• Facial laxity
• Muscle laxity
• Neck
• Skin laxity

A mini face-lift only addresses loose skin in front of the ears.

A mid face-lift only addresses the descent of fat in the cheek area by lifting it up.

A full, comprehensive facial rejuvenation through a face/neck lift includes both a mini lift, mid face-lift, and a neck lift all combined.

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