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  • Facelift Recovery Depends On Types and Location of Procedures
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So, this is Dr. Lowenstein in Santa Barbara. I want to talk quickly about recovery from a facelift. Now a facelift recovery is a little dependent on several different things because there're a lot of different operations that can happen during a facelift if you’re going to have your eyes done, if you’re going to have your brow done. But after all these procedures, you will likely to have some swelling; you're likely to have some bruising, though that doesn't happen all the time. It's not a very painful operation. Any of these operations in the face are really not very painful operations. But it's important to have a good recovery afterwards for about two weeks. I'm going to want you to wear a chin strap right after surgery. You’re going to go home all wrapped up overnight.

I'm going to see you the next day and we’ll take all those wrappings down. You may have drains that come out from behind your ears and they'll get taken out the first day. After that, again, you're going to have that chin strap. And that kind of helps hold everything up. Hold everything, all the tissue planes against each other so that you heal nicely and help reduce swelling. After two weeks, I'll tell you that you can go out. Usually you're not going to quite look like you're going to look when everything is healed, but you should look pretty good and you can go out with some cover up make up. So that’s after two weeks, you can go out acceptably at your third favorite restaurant in town with makeup. So, after that, you progress relatively quickly. I've seen patients three days after facelift look fantastic.

And I have seen some people take several weeks to really recover adequately that they were comfortable going out. So, it depends on you, it depends on how you heal, and it depends on what your comfort level is to go out. If you have a big event, a wedding, something like that, you really want to plan ahead and not cut it too close. Just in case you're one of those people that take a little bit longer. I always try to set the expectations in such a way that you're comfortable with what the plan is. That's how I would set expectations after a facelift. So, I hope that's helpful. Any specific questions, always feel free to ask. Thanks.

Facelift Recovery Depends On Types and Location of Procedures

Dr. Lowenstein explains the recovery process of a facelift, although noting that each patient's experience is different and depends on which procedures have been performed.