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I'd been considering getting a facelift for a few...
I'd been considering getting a facelift for a few years. I have a somewhat spotty history with the sun (too much beach time as a youngster, and then tanning beds in the 1980s), and even though I've been pretty good about getting peels, Fraxel, Retin-A, etc. over the years, the underlying tissues of my face were continuing their gradual slide toward the floor. I'd been seeing Dr. Hessler for several years for fillers and Botox, and every time I'd visit her office I'd pore through her "Before & After" gallery books. The "after" photos were all so beautiful: everyone looked refreshed and rejuvenated, but so soft and SO natural. Between her bright, sparkly personality and her obvious gift for cosmetic surgery, Dr. Hessler was a no-brainer choice for me when I finally decided to take the plunge.
I should tell you that I had a blepharoplasty (upper and lower) performed by another Bay Area surgeon about ten years ago, and his approach was to try to bully me into buying add-on procedures, including a chin implant, which I had serious doubts about needing. I initially agreed to it anyway, mostly because I was pretty helpless in the face of his bombastic personality. However, the night before that surgery, I called his office and told him that I'd changed my mind about the implant, but that I'd go ahead with the bleph. He gave me some guff about it, but I've never regretted that decision.
Dr. Hessler's approach was the exact opposite of this other surgeon's approach. She's clearly a gifted surgeon -- GIFTED -- but somehow her ego takes a back seat to her desire to make sure that her patients know they can trust her to take good care of them. She can answer questions to any level of detail you want or need. She spent a year (literally) answering my questions, from the vaguest aesthetic ones to some very specific ones about which procedures would benefit me most. One of her suggestions, the lip lift, was a surprise. I'd seen lots of before-and-after lip lift pictures here on RS and on Google images, and most of them looked un-subtle and over-done to me. I didn't have a particularly long upper lip. So during one of the handful of consultations I had with her, I told her I wasn't interested in a lip lift, and she was absolutely fine with that. But then, on a subsequent visit... I started looking again at those before & after gallery books of hers, and I asked her some more questions, which she answered with her characteristic patience. It turned out that a few of my favorite cases from her books were patients who'd had a lip lift in conjunction with a facelift (and neck lift). But the results were so natural-looking! It was then that I realized something obvious that Dr. Hessler was simply too polite to reiterate (she'd already suggested a lip lift, but I'd rejected it): when your whole face is sagging a bit, why would you just lift your jawline, cheeks, and forehead? Your upper lip is sagging, too!
In the end, I went with a facelift, neck lift, fat transfer (abdomen to face), and a subtle lip lift (I believe the widest part of the excision was 4mm). I'm only five days out, but I'm already starting to see my results, and I could not be happier. I've seen Dr. Hessler twice since my surgery for routine follow-ups, and as usual, she and her staff have treated me like they have all the time in the world to talk to me and answer my questions.
It's pretty hard to express how impressed I am with Dr. Hessler's work and her professional practice without resorting to hyperbole. But she really is THE BEST.
I'll post some before and after pics here in the coming weeks. For now, it's time for a little incision care and rest. More soon!
I should tell you that I had a blepharoplasty (upper and lower) performed by another Bay Area surgeon about ten years ago, and his approach was to try to bully me into buying add-on procedures, including a chin implant, which I had serious doubts about needing. I initially agreed to it anyway, mostly because I was pretty helpless in the face of his bombastic personality. However, the night before that surgery, I called his office and told him that I'd changed my mind about the implant, but that I'd go ahead with the bleph. He gave me some guff about it, but I've never regretted that decision.
Dr. Hessler's approach was the exact opposite of this other surgeon's approach. She's clearly a gifted surgeon -- GIFTED -- but somehow her ego takes a back seat to her desire to make sure that her patients know they can trust her to take good care of them. She can answer questions to any level of detail you want or need. She spent a year (literally) answering my questions, from the vaguest aesthetic ones to some very specific ones about which procedures would benefit me most. One of her suggestions, the lip lift, was a surprise. I'd seen lots of before-and-after lip lift pictures here on RS and on Google images, and most of them looked un-subtle and over-done to me. I didn't have a particularly long upper lip. So during one of the handful of consultations I had with her, I told her I wasn't interested in a lip lift, and she was absolutely fine with that. But then, on a subsequent visit... I started looking again at those before & after gallery books of hers, and I asked her some more questions, which she answered with her characteristic patience. It turned out that a few of my favorite cases from her books were patients who'd had a lip lift in conjunction with a facelift (and neck lift). But the results were so natural-looking! It was then that I realized something obvious that Dr. Hessler was simply too polite to reiterate (she'd already suggested a lip lift, but I'd rejected it): when your whole face is sagging a bit, why would you just lift your jawline, cheeks, and forehead? Your upper lip is sagging, too!
In the end, I went with a facelift, neck lift, fat transfer (abdomen to face), and a subtle lip lift (I believe the widest part of the excision was 4mm). I'm only five days out, but I'm already starting to see my results, and I could not be happier. I've seen Dr. Hessler twice since my surgery for routine follow-ups, and as usual, she and her staff have treated me like they have all the time in the world to talk to me and answer my questions.
It's pretty hard to express how impressed I am with Dr. Hessler's work and her professional practice without resorting to hyperbole. But she really is THE BEST.
I'll post some before and after pics here in the coming weeks. For now, it's time for a little incision care and rest. More soon!
Provider Review
Board Certified Facial Plastic Surgeon
320 Lambert Ave., Palo Alto, California
Dr. Hessler is the best of the best, and her office staff are all wonderful people. Highly recommended.