Facelift in Santa Barbara, CA

The Blended Cheek and Neck Lift reflects a modern three dementia understanding of detailed facial anatomy. Repositioning and sculpting of fallen facial tissue provide an individualized rejuvenating procedure. The Blended Cheek and Neck Lift is designed to make patients appear as more youthful, rested versions of themselves.

Studies of facial anatomy have mapped out specific regions of volume that give the face its younger appearance. Specialized layers of connective tissue envelop these areas and maintain their position in our early years.

The primary connective tissue is called the SMAS and is in continuity with the broad, flat neck muscle called the platysma. As we age, we lose volume in our face, while the connective tissue of both the skin and the SMAS weakens.

Facial tissues tend to droop over the jawline, producing unwanted wrinkles and jowls. Similarly, these mechanisms cause excess skin and banding in the neck as the underlying platysma muscle cannot retain its youthful contour.

In an operation to restore the facial appearance to its youthful version, attention must be paid not only to the overlying skin but particularly to the volume below it. Pulling the skin alone results in an awkward and temporary result.

These telltale signs of facial plastic surgery are avoided with Dr. Lowenstein’s facelift in Santa Barbara. It is a sculpting of the tissue underneath the skin, made up of the SMAS and the platysma, that provides the appearance of an optimal facelift.

The platysma, as it ages, can form bands in the neck as its supportive structure weakens. As part of the Santa Barbara Face Lift, the platysma muscle is tightened under the jaw and laterally in the neck, effectively supplying a corset or sling to reshape this area. In some patients, resection or sculpting of fat either with liposuction or with direct fat removal is performed to further contour this area.

As we get older, the youthful fatty tissue that lies over the cheekbone area falls. This tissue is called malar fat. The bright, youthful appearance of our cheeks lessens as there is less volume over the apex of the cheekbones, and falling malar fat can produce unwanted shadows in the cheek below the eyes.

Volume loss also affects the fat in the lower part of the mid-face, called the buccal region. This produces a more hollow appearance, which is also a sign of aging. As the volume loss in the mid-face progresses, the overlying skin, which used to drape smoothly over the youthful face, sags and worsens the shadow of the nasolabial fold below it.

The nasolabial fold, sometimes called the nasolabial crease, is a highly misunderstood region of the face. It represents a tight connection between the skin and the underlying facial structure. While injection of soft tissue filler into the nasolabial folds can help soften their depth, significant injections are not recommended. The worsening of the shadow of this crease occurs because of the loss of volume and elasticity in the cheek and the sagging and falling of this tissue.

A puffed-out, over-filled nasolabial fold treated with excessive injectable does not produce a youthful or even natural appearance. The nasolabial folds appear worse as we age because the cheek above falls downward as we get older, causing a worsening shadow in the crease. The fix for this problem is not to fill the area below the collapsed tissue but instead to lift the cheek back to its youthful position.

Dr. Lowenstein’s cheek lift reverses signs of aging by re-suspending each specialized area of volume to its proper position through well hidden and limited incisions. The malar fat is replaced over the cheek to provide the beautiful contour that we see in every magazine cover-girl. The buccal tissue is additionally lifted, reducing the skin excess and laxity over the nasolabial crease and thereby reducing the shadow of the nasolabial fold.

Dr. Lowenstein’s Cheek Lift is performed through a lower eyelid incision and most often incorporates lower eyelid rejuvenation. The natural fat of the cheek is accessed through this small incision. Elevation of the soft tissue of the cheek, called the malar fat, produces two excellent results: rejuvenation of the soft tissue of the cheek and improvement of the shadows of the nasolabial folds.

Either with a facelift or in the months following a facelift, newly re-draped skin over the sculpted face can be further tightened without the over-pulled look, only at Dr. Lowenstein’s Plastic Surgery Center, using the revolutionary cool helium plasma skin tightening treatment. By utilizing the cool helium plasma beam on the underside of the skin, the skin itself is allowed to tighten without excess mechanical pulling, avoiding the “operated look” but creating a skin conditioning improvement seen nowhere else on the Central California Coast. For more information on plasma reconditioning, visit our dedicated page here.

In general, a facelift can take two to five hours. However, the duration of any surgery is dependent on multiple factors. These include the extent of the lift, the technique used, and the inclusion of ancillary procedures such as blepharoplasty.

Dr. Lowenstein performs every facelift in response to the unique changes as a patient has aged. The customization of each technique also influences the time a patient may be under general or local anesthesia.