While most patients are well into middle age when they begin to consider a facelift, mini facelifts are ideal for patients younger than the age of forty. A mini facelift or a “band aid” facelift is a procedure that leaves very little scarring and allows surgeons to remove just a bit of slack in the muscles as they loosen with age.
When thirty-somethings start to see a bit of slack in their skin, they will see deeper lines form around their mouths or along the sides of the eyes. The combination of gravity and sun exposure from earlier years combines to pull the skin down on the face. Thirty-year-olds are just beginning to see the effects of aging and a mini facelift allows surgeons to reverse the damage almost immediately as it becomes visible.
The Mini Lift Procedure
A mini facelift starts with incisions around the ears. The incisions are then covered in the natural folds of the skin in front of the ears so that the scars don’t show. Once the incisions are made, the surgeon pulls the skin up just a bit to tighten the underlying tissue and then draws the skin up toward the ears. Excess skin is removed from the face before the remaining skin and tissue is sutured with very fine stitches.
The mini facelift leaves almost no scarring once the procedure is complete and the resulting scars are hidden. Once the swelling from the recovery goes down, the newly restored face is bright and healthy with a youthful appearance. The skin is smooth since the wrinkles have been pulled out through the surgery. Often a mini facelift is improved even more by laser resurfacing that removes additional blemishes and fine lines from the remainder of the face.
