Need neck lift 1 yr post initial procedure to fix multiple poor results. Will I have enough skin to hide bad ear scars?

Thank you for sharing your photographs and questions. I am sorry to hear that your postoperative recovery has not been pleasant.  If your scars continue to be hypertrophic, the most appropriate next step in management may be continued steroid injections, prior to any revision operation.  Unfortunately it is impossible to determine from your photos alone whether or not you have enough skin laxity to allow for scar revision. I would recommend you consult with inexperienced facelift and neck lift surgeon who has performed many primary and secondary facelift operations.  I will be fineness information helpful.  All the best, Dr. Harmych

Plastic surgery scars require attention after surgery so that they remain cosmetically-appealing and barely noticeable. In our office, we use a protocol for scars that minimizes their activity in the 6-8 weeks after surgery. If you have late plastic surgery scars, you may also require laser and RF therapy to help reduce the longterm effects of the scarring. Keloids, hypertrophic scars, widened scars, red scars, and hyperpigmented scars all require scar modulation with topical creams followed by lasers and RF therapy. Topical skincare should be directed to a specific need, whether for pigmentation or hypertrophy and our office can guide you through the process to obtain the correct Plato’s Scar cream or Melarase cream for hypertrophy and discoloration. In terms of lasers, we would employ the vbeam laser for redness, Venus Viva RF, PRP microneedling, chemical peels, and Morpheus 8, fractional erbium, or fractional co2. All of these have their individual benefits. Most of all, we recommend you visit a solid plastic surgeon who understands surgical scar revision, laser therapy, and RF therapy for scars.

Best,
Dr. Karamanoukian
Realself100 Surgeon

Thank you for your question. Your result should continue to improve as you approach the end of your recovery period. Please discuss your healing process and instructions with your board certified facial plastic surgeon.
Best wishes,

If the scars are lumpy and hypertrophic, then your surgeon should be injecting them with a steroid to soften them. After waiting a year, you will possibly be candidate for another procedure to lift and remove the scars, but you need to be seen by an experienced plastic surgeon at that time to judge the mobility of the skin.

Scars fade with time. Generally, plastic surgeons advise to wait at least one year before considering revising a scar with additional plastic surgery. Injections can help improve thick scars, while surgery would be required to reposition scars for better camouflage. Link below are some examples of facelift scars over periods of time. Notice how mini lift scars appear weeks, months, and years after cosmetic surgery
Best,
Dr. Chaboki

Sorry for what you are experiencing.  The incisions should have been placed closer to the hair line and ear borders so that they hide well.  In general one should wait a year before re-operating and then you would also need enough skin laxity to be able to advance the previous scars past the proper skin incision so that they can be excised.  You appear relatively young and It is hard to say that you will have aged enough or the skin relaxed enough in a year to be able to do this.   In the mean time laser resurfacing to the scars will help them fade and steroid injections to any lumpiness will be effective.

It’s doubtful that you have sufficient looseness for another lift to pull back the scars. At this point, you might want to consider non surgical options such as a laser. It’s best to go for a personal consultation.

Thank you for sharing your question and photographs.  Based only on your pictures it does not appear that you have enough loose skin to better hide your scars. Because you appear to be very youthful, and not much skin is removed with a full face lift, it may take several years to achieve the skin laxity needed.  I would recommend continued conservative treatment of your current scars to maximize their appearance for now. 

It does not appear you have enough laxity to hide the scars at this point.  You could likely improve the appearance of the scars with laser or IPL treatments to decrease the erythema (redness).  Lumpy hypertrophic scars behind your ears are likely related to tension on the scars and excising the scars and revising at this point and probably at one year will still have excessive tension and hypertrophic scarring will recur.  Fortunately hypertrophic scarring will usually improve with time and conservative treatment.