Oral Sex After Facelift?

You should probably wait at least a week or two. The excitement of receiving oral sex could increase your partner's blood pressure and make swelling worse. ;)

I usually suggest my patients to wait two weeks before returning to strenuous activities, exercise or sex. Performing oral sex can put unnecessary stress on the surrounding facial tissues, potentially delaying your healing. 

I would recommend a minimum of 3 weeks following a full face lift for any type of sexual activity of any type. The holding strength of your incisions are just getting strong by that time.

This can be a very vigorous use of the face causing stress to the healing tissues.  It is likely to be safe three or more weeks after the facelift.  However, your surgeon who will need to fix torn or broken sutures if you create some unintended damage after the facelift, may have an opinion on the subject.  I would discuss the issue with him or her.  They will have the best understanding of the work performed and when it may be safe to resume this activity.

I suggest 2 weeks minimum to my facelift patients. High blood pressure, valsalva manoeuvres and facial flushing to do go well with facial soft tissue healing!

It would be important to know exactly what type of facelift you had, where your incisions were placed, and how your recovery has been progressing in order to answer your question of when you could begin giving oral sex after your facelift.  Since your surgeon has the most knowledge about your particular procedure and recovery, you should really contact him or her to answer your question.  For most routine types of facelifts with good recovery, I would say that a month should be an adequate amount of time to wait.  

Dear kitty,

Thank you for your question.  I'm not sure who had the facelift here, but either way, increases in blood pressure either to you or your partner will increase the swelling in the head.  Wait, at least 2-3 weeks, and start slow.  If you are the one who had the face lift, try doing the deed with your face in the elevated vertical position, if it is your partner then they should also have their head elevated.  Increases in blood pressure and having your face down or your partners face at or below the heart, increases the amount of pressure and swelling in the face.

Best wishes,

Pablo PRichard, MD

You want to do whatever your doctor tells you. I would have my patients wait a few weeks. Raising your blood preassure can lead to more swelling and to a potential bleeding problem. Let things get settled for a few weeks in my opinion.

Kitty, I assume you are a female and the one who had the facelift.  The guidelines given are certainly good ones with 2 weeks seemingly the majority vote.  Regardless, if your mouth opening is still restricted by the muscle plication done, I would suggest waiting longer until there was no more restrictions on range of your jaw.  Hope your results were smashing!

My recommendations for activity levels following facelifts is as follows:


Week 1 - Normal non-strenuous activity.  Eg. light walks.

Week 2 - Low intensity activity.  Eg. brisk walks.

Week 3 - Moderate level activity.  Eg. jogging.

Week 4 - Full on activity. 


Regarding oral sex, I would think that a less aggressive format would be OK after about 10 days and then one could build up from there.  The key is to avoid excessive flexion-extension and rotation of the neck during the early healing period.

Mario J. Imola, MD, DDS, FRCSC, FACS.