What is the average length of time required in surgery to complete a necklift?

 

Surgical time for a neck lift can vary greatly, depending on the surgeon's experience, concurrent technology use, and finally the degree of presenting face and neck laxity.

On the experience side, if a physician is combining a lateral facelift with a submental incision and platysmalplasty, expect the surgery to take anywhere from 1.5-3 hours, depending on the degree of work that needs to be done. Surgeon  case volume can impact these surgery times.  Be aware that the type of anesthesia used may also cause varied operative times.

On the technology side, newer devices  like laser liposuction (which can reduce bleeding), absorbable barbed sutures which don't require knot tying, and products like PRP (platelet rich plasma) can reduce operative times. There are also a host of new cautery devices that when combined with facelifting can also reduce dissection times.

Finally, there are many different types of lifting techniques and combinations, and good surgeons tend to vary the approaches based on the degree of laxity and expressed patient expectations. For example, some people can get by with just lateral facelifting, or maybe combined lifting with just some type of liposuction. In these scenarios, times may be diminished. One thing to note however is that some people have features (heavier neck/jowls, thicker skin, etc) that may add more time to surgery. To this end it is important to have a frank discussion with your physician on what they think the times will be based on your features and your desired new look. Good luck.

   An isolated necklift with a submental incision is not as powerful as a face and neck lift with both sets of incisions.  An isolated necklift may take 20 or 30 minutes, while a face and neck lift with SMAS plication and fat grafting may take 3 hours.

It really depends on what needs to be done.  There are a number of surgical steps in a neck lift and some patients need a couple of those steps while other may need all.  Steps are:


Neck liposuction

Submentoplasty

Platysmaplasty

Platysmal myotomy

Submandibular gland resection

Posterior skin excision


I have performed neck lifts ranging in time from 30 minutes to 3 hours