Should my scars look like this four weeks post facelift/necklift surgery? (photos)

Thank you for your question.  Your incisions do not look normal for 4 weeks Postop.  You are probably having a reaction to your sutures.  Removal should help your recovery.  Contact your surgeon to discuss this matter.

ALWAYS  best to make an assessment in person, but based on these photos you may have an issue that can be addressed to get you back on track for a great facelift result ! Either you may have a slight wound infection or you may have developed a mild allergy to topical application of a wound care product such as an antibiotic ointment.  If you do have some drainage, it should be swabbed and sent for a culture to see if there are any bacterial components to the redness you have. If there is minimal drainage  and redness along the incision lines you might consider it an allergy to topical antibiotic, and probably should change to another antibiotic ointment to apply to the incision line.  If there is a considerable amount of drainage, you may need to be started on an oral antibiotic, and follow up on  the culture results to confirm that  you are on the right antibiotic.  At four weeks you may think this is not the greatest early result, but with proper wound care your incisions still may become quite invisible.  Follow-up with your surgeon is the best way to optimize your eventual outcome !!

  Thank you for the photos.  I do agree that it looks like there was a lot of tension on the posterior incisions and there also could be infection present.  The front incision on the right ear and the earlobe look good.  I do think you should see your doctor soon.  Good luck!

Dear EstherOnionsAlthough you should go see your surgeon as soon as possible, I dont see any evidence of infection here. I think that your surgeon used "dissolvable" sutures and they cause significant inflammation in some patients. In your case, the suture line is red and inflamed however the rest of surrounding skin does not appear involved. I think a thorough cleaning and removal of remaining parts of sutures followed by topical wound care will help immensely. then at 6 months, reassess your scars and decide whats next.

It does appear that you had a lot of tension placed on the skin incision. This has resulted in widening of the incisions and alot of redness. Drainage from facelift incisions is very rare and is usually a sign of infection. You should return to your surgeon ASAP. I do agree with you that your incisions have not healed as well as they should have. Once any infection is dealt with and you've healed, you can consider laser resurfacing or scar revision to blend and camouflage the incisions. I hope this information is helpful for you.Stephen Weber MD, FACSDenver Facial Plastic Surgeon