Local Anesthetic w/Oral Sedation - Safe for Upper Eyelid and Lower Facelift Surgery?

Am 55 with skin in very good condition. But have drooping upper lids and banding in neck. To have a lower face lift/platysmaplasty and upper eyelid surgery, doctor has offered me either the option of IV sedation with board certified anes. or was also told I was a candidate for just local with oral sedation, which will save me a substantial amount of money. Is there any reason not to do it this way? Is one form of anesthesia riskier than the other?

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37 Doctor Answers | Asked by Carrie Anne in Stuart, FL

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Facelift under local and oral sedation

Hi, Yes this is a safe way to have a facelift. Remember its the hands of your surgeon that make the surgery itself safe. Oral sedation works with good local anesthesia of the area being operated on. IV sedation does increase the risk slightly but will improve your overall comfort during the procedure. Either way, its your surgeon you should feel comfortable with. Best, Dr.S.

Facelift under Local Anesthesia

There are many centers that advertise Facelift under local anesthesia with different catchy names such as "weekend Facelift", "quick lift", etc. They all try to entice people with cheaper prices by not using an anesthesiologist, proper monitoring, and supervision. To me this sounds like having an airline advertising cheaper flight fairs by not having a pilot present, and telling the travelers that the plane is going to be controlled by auto-pilot with some... more

Local anesthesia vs. Intravenous sedation in eyelid and facelift surgery

Either type of anesthesia can be used safely with these procedures. The length of time it will take to perform the surgery, the extensiveness of the techniques employed, and the aversion to being sedated are all considerations in determining what type of anesthesia is chosen. Most commonly, these procedures would be done with some type of intravenous sedation, but in patients who do not want to be sedated, oral medications with local anesthesia is effective when the procedure... more

Face Lift and Eyelid Surgery under local or anesthesia

I do all of the above as well as offer general anesthesia. I do however, carefully pick and choose which patients I will use straight local infiltartion on when performing Minimum Incision Face Lifts, Lip Augmentation and other suitable cases. With a local, you will feel the injections, you will hear the sounds of scissors working through your tissues and you will hear the typical sounds of an OR with monitors etc. If you are very calm by nature this should not be a problem... more

Facelift and Eyelid surgery under local anesthesia with sedation

Carrie Anne- I will try and address your 2 questions 1) Any reason not to use oral sedation and local anesthesia? If you feel comfortable awake and without feeling pain for an extended time period then you will do wonderfully. I use this same technique for some patients who do not want IV sedation and an anesthesiologist. Most people fall asleep during the procedure and comment later that the exerience was not at all unpleasant . 2) Is one form of anesthesia riskier? Use of IV sedation can... more

Facelift with IV Sedation: More Comfortable

I have done hundreds of facelifts with IV Sedation, as well as with oral medication plus local anesthesia. In general, for healthy individuals with an uncomplicated medical history, the safety considerations between the two sedation approaches are not significantly different. You will find equally valid arguments on each side of the issue among experts. It is easier to keep you completely comfortable, even completely unaware of the surgery (including the injections of... more

Oral Sedation and Local Anesthesia - Good Choice for Lower Facelift and/or Eyelid procedures

The key to your decision is Comfort and Safety. The fact that you were given choices is excellent. If you are not an anxious person and do not have high blood pressure or other significant medical problems then you would certainly be a candidate for oral sedation and local anesthesia. Although we offer all forms of anesthesia,the majority of our patients prefer oral sedation and local anesthesia for facial procedures under 3 hours. Most of our lower face lift (Lite Lift) and... more

IV sedation + local is the best option for facial surrgery

Having performed thousands of facial plastic surgery operations with both general anesthesia and IV sedation I can say with confidence that IV sedation has all the advantages of general anesthesia (patient comfort) and very few of the side effects of general. The main advantages of IV sedation anesthesia are: It does not require putting a breathing tube in the throat It does not require a breathing machine The recovery is much faster There is much less... more

Sam Naficy, MD

80 reviews

Seattle Facial Plastic Surgeon

www.seattleface.com

Face Lift

We do all of our facelifts under oral sedation, oral block and local infiltration. In the past, we have used general anesthesia, but there is a substantial increase in post op swelling of the face, and edema of the neck. With sedation, it is decreased by about 50%, and with local, we see a reduction another 25%.

Facelift - Local Anesthetic w/Oral Sedation - Safe for Upper Eyelid and Lower Facelift Surgery?

Safe? Yes. Advisable? Maybe. There are no absolute answers with this (and many other) questions of surgery and anesthesia and you can get the same or similar results in many different ways. I offer most of the options for this procedure, including general anesthesia, intravenous sedation and, in limited cases, local anesthesia with oral sedation. I would not normally want to do the extent of surgery you're describing under local anesthesia and oral... more