How Long Should It Take to Witness the Final Results of a True Facelift

It is very difficult to answer your question without seeing your pictures or examining you – consider posting images showing your areas of concern. Typically by 1 year the healing is complete

In general, most patients feel they look their best around the 3-4 month mark so having subtle swelling until this point is not unusual.  You seem to be describing either a prominent submandibular gland or a ptotic submandibular gland.  This gland is one of our spit glands and is held in place by ligments and muscle.  The gland descends with time and after a facelift the glands can become a bit more visible as they descend with time or if you had ptotic glands to begin with.  Eighteen months after surgery, this is probably the most likely reason.

Facelift results do not change much after one year; you will normally see a very close approximation of your final result in 6months. However, there are some subtle changes that occur over the next six months that are visible. The problem you are describing is probably ptotic sub-mandibular glands which, as you have read from the other comments, can be a difficult issue to handle but will require a re-operation to fix.