"The face is our calling card to the outside world. It has so many different expressions; it’s so distinctive."
A facelift is designed to address issues that cannot be resolved with injections: sagging skin on the cheeks, a blurred jawline and a neck that has lost its firmness. It is the deeper layer beneath the skin, the SMAS, that is lifted, not the skin itself. The skin is then repositioned without being pulled tight, which is why a lift performed at the correct depth does not look like it has been surgically altered.
Facelift, neck lift or both
The cheeks and jawline are treated with a facelift, and the neck with a neck lift. They are often carried out in the same operation, as the tissue hanging down from the jawline rarely ends there. A mid-face lift is a minor procedure for the area under the eyes, and deep plane is a deeper lift in which the entire layer is moved in one piece. The most suitable technique depends on where the sagging is located and how much tissue needs to be moved.
This is how Birgit is planning the procedure
During the consultation, Birgit assesses the quality of the skin, how the tissue sits against the bone structure and how the face moves. A facelift does not restore lost volume, so it is sometimes combined with fat grafting or with blepharoplasty. She also explains what a facelift does not do. It does not remove fine lines, does not alter the skin’s texture and does not stop the ageing process.
For twenty years, she was in charge of surgery for facial paralysis at Karolinska University Hospital. Anyone who has spent twenty years operating on the facial nerve knows where its branches run, and it is precisely these that a facelift must avoid. She has also published on brow lifts in cases of paralysis, where the position of the eyebrow was measured before and after the operation.
Scars and where they are located
The incision begins at or near the hairline at the temple, follows the natural crease of the ear – sometimes extending slightly into the ear – and continues behind the ear into the hairline. In a neck lift, a short incision is sometimes made under the chin. The hairline is not moved, so the hair can be worn as usual. The scars are red for the first few months and fade over one to two years.