Let us first address what happens during the aging process and what a facelift does. As we age, a thin layer of muscle and fascia in our face and neck sag, dragging the skin with it. This muscle is not attached to bone and there is no way of strengthening it to prevent it from sagging – EVERYONE eventually sags. As the muscle and fascia sag, the face gets more fullness in the jowl area and neck than it did in youth. The culprit is the sagging muscle, not the skin! The aging face goes from a V-shape of youth to an aging A-shape.
During Dr. Bunkis’ Natural facelift procedure, the skin is elevated off the muscle, the muscles are lifted to their position of youth, the excess skin resected but the skin is not pulled tightly to avoid that wind tunnel look! It is important to understand that while your facial shape will be made more youthful by a facelift, the skin texture will not change! If your skin is weathered, a skin resurfacing procedure (by laser or chemical peels) can be added to your procedure to improve your texture as well as your shape. Regardless of your age at the time of a facelift procedure, you will look about a dozen years younger after the procedure.
A facelift procedure does not stop the aging process, it only turns it back. You will continue to sag at your normal rate but for the rest of your life, you will continue to look about a dozen years younger than you would have looked had you not had the procedure. A good example is with identical twins when one has the procedure and the other does not. Let’s say one twin has the procedure at age 55 – she will look about a dozen years younger than her twin. If both return at age 70, the twin who has not had the procedure will look 70, her identical twin will look about 58 years of age.
The best way to illustrate this further is to look at a sequence of photos of someone as they have aged and had procedures to make herself look younger. And I cannot think of a better set of photos than those of my wife, Tina.
The photo on your left is Tina at age 23. Note the cheek fullness, relatively short upper lip which allows her to show her perfect teeth, and a narrow space between her eyebrows and eyelashes. The center photo was prior to her fist facelift in her mid 40’s. Note the jowling, neck bands and low eyebrows, with the lashes touching the brows. The photo on the right shows Tina a year after her facelift and brow lift by Dr. Bunkis of Orange County Plastic Surgery in Newport Beach, CA. Note the restoration of a youthful, V-shaped face and the restoration of the small space between her eyebrows and eyelashes.
The photo on your left shows Tina in her mid 50’s, looking a dozen years younger than her stated age. The middle photo shows Tina well into her 60’s, still looking younger than her age, but with some jowling, neck laxity and lip lengthening to the point where her teeth do not show much, even when smiling. Now look at Tina now, after a secondary facelift and upper lip shortening by Dr. Bunkis of Orange County Plastic Surgery in Newport Beach, CA. She has the restored V-shaped face of youth and her teeth show when she smiles!
Do you want to look younger? Please feel free to call Dr. Bunkis at Orange County Plastic Surgery (949-888-9700) to discuss your options.
