What's the difference btw a ponytail lift, AuraLyft, a deep plane face lift, and an SMS face lift?

Let me give you a little bit of history about facelift procedures in order to help you understand the difference between some of the techniques used. In the beginning, facelifts involved only the skin. Later on, plastic surgeons realized the skin could stretch over time and that it would be best to work on the supporting structures under the skin called SMAS (Superficial Muscular Aponeurotic System) and the platysma muscles. This is a layer of tissue under the skin that is comprised of fibrofatty tissues and superficial muscles within the fatty layer under the skin. These structures loosen with age and contribute to the jowls and laxity under the neck. A SMAS facelift involves some sort of repositioning of these structures to eliminate laxity from areas like the jowls and under the chin while enhancing other areas like the cheek bones. There are different types of SMAS procedures such as high SMAS, SMASectomy, or SMAS plication. To do these SMAS procedures, one has to lift the skin to expose the layer underneath. This allows the pull to go in one direction in the deep layer and possibly in a different direction in the skin layer, which can be an advantage in certain situations. The deep plane facelift takes the skin and the SMAS in one layer and they are pulled together. This technique may have some advantages and disadvantages. The surgeon should know all of these techniques and use them according to the needs of a particular patient. Ideally, the lay public should not ask the surgeon what technique they desire, because this is the job of the surgeon to know what is the best technique for the patient. So why is it that everyone has heard about all these techniques? It is called marketing. Surgeons want to distinguish themselves by saying they do deep plane facelifts or “X, Y and Z” facelift. Giving their facelift a name is an attempt to create a brand name for the procedure. That is where the ponytail lift or the whatever lift comes from. A smart consumer sees beyond that and chooses a surgeon who has a great reputation and gets good natural results with a quicker recovery and happy patients. It is shown over and over again that the techniques don’t make the difference in the results. What makes the difference is a great plastic surgeon working on a patient with great indications for the procedure. Some patients have always been beautiful and have beautiful features that is masked by aging. Those patients will have the best results. Other patients present a bigger challenge and need more creativity and artistic skill from the surgeon to achieve good results.

There is a lot of nomenclature when it comes to facelifts. A lot of practitioners create a name for marketing purposes, but that doesn't mean that it's any better than a regular lift. There are two main types - a SMAS lift and a deep plane lift. Both can give excellent results for the right candidate, so the key is to see a facial specialist that has a lot of experience in both procedures.

Even as a busy practicing face lift surgeon the number of coined terms that clients approach me with when having their face lift consultation is pretty remarkable.  It would be difficult in the context of this format to adequately describe the various types of face lift approaches there are.  Trying to understand the layers of anatomy involved in  a well performed deep plane face lift takes several years of practice and anatomical understanding.  The important thing for you as the patient is to see surgeons who you trust and let them know what areas of your face are problematic for you.  They should be able to adequately address your problem and choose the proper face lift technique for you as well as tell you the pros and cons of each technique.  You will unlikely remember the name of the face lift you had performed but you will certainly remember the result!  Best of luck.