Is there a higher risk of nerve damage with a deep plane lift versus a traditional lift that address the SMAS only?

Permanent injury to the facial nerve that governs facial movement is very rare in facelift surgery. The incidence is no greater when the deep plane technique is employed.

There is some increased risk with the deep plane facelift
compared to the SMAS lift only.  Just the
same, nerve injury can happen even with a simple skin lift.  When your plastic surgeon understands the
anatomy and uses careful technique, the risk is decreased for any type of
facelift procedure.  The reason that
patients will choose a deep plane facelift over a SMAS lift typically has to do
with the quality of the final outcome and the duration of the results.  Patients love looking younger longer.


Grant A. Fairbanks, MD

Thank you for a very interesting question.Review of the literature on facelift surgery shows a 2% incidence of injury to the branches of the facial nerve. There are however no studies that have compared the incidence of nerve injury seen in the various types of facelifts. Should be an interesting one.The deep plane facelift however has a lower incidence of skin necrosis as the flap that is raised is a composite - meaning it has many more layers - therefore a better blood supply.Hope my answer helps.Kind regards,Ivo GwanmesiaLondon Plastic Surgeon

The risk of temporary weakness of branches of the facial nerve after facelift surgery is 1-2%. There has never been a study that demonstrates this risk to be higher with the deep plane technique. The rate of skin necrosis is higher for techniques that require a longer, thinner skin flap to be elevated compared to the deep plane technique.