On a Deep Plane Facelift...is Facial Nerve Injury Risk Very High?

It is important that the surgeon understands the relationship of the facial nerve to the anchoring ligaments and the anatomy of the SMAS and subSMAS tissue spaces accurately to perform a safe and successful surgery. Actually, extended techniques such as deep and composite plane facelifts while identifying and preserving the anatomy often leads to lower complication rates than blindly working around vital structures.

    The rate of facial nerve injury is not high in deep plane facelift but is higher than in other facelift variants.   Kenneth Hughes, MD Los Angeles, CA

The facial nerve provides motion to the muscles of the face and some in the neck as well. Since the facial nerve runs in the region of any facelift surgery, injury is possible. Fortunately, the risk of injury is lower the 1% and any injury is usually temporary.  Risk is similar for deep plane facelift surgery and also very unlikely to have any permanent injury.

At the end of the day, the person performing your surgery is more important then the technique used. It is important that you choose a skilled facelift surgeon who performs deep plane facelifts often (every week).  Most surgeons that perform a Deep Plane Facelift surgery have significant experience performing surgery of the face, which minimizes the chance of risk.  During your consultation ask your surgeon how often they perform facelifts and ask them if they have ever had a facial nerve injury.