It's in the name.
Facelift surgery.
I knew my face would be tense, but is this normal? How long will this tension last? Will my expression return to normal? I trust my doctor, but I can't control my anxiety.
You will go through this process after facelift surgery.
If not, there is a problem.
Anxiety, fear, impatience are normal.
I go through this process with every patient, you are going through it for the first time in your life and probably only once.
Basic information:
When the human skin is stretched, it stretches in a reaction we call "stress relaxation".
Without such a skill, a pregnant woman's belly cannot grow, and your body cannot expand when you gain weight.
In the most classical methods of facelift surgeries, we stretched the skin and expected this skin tension to recover the soft tissues of the face. Some of the problems of these classical skin-based surgeries were flattening of the face due to excessive tension in the skin, deformation of the ear and hairline, and enlargement of the scars under tension. However, perhaps the most important problem was the recurrence of tissue laxity in the central parts of the face (under the eyes, under the neck, around the mouth) within months as soon as the skin relaxed.
The feeling of tension in skin-based facelift surgeries typically disappears within 1-2 weeks. Patients become comfortable, and the following 1-3 months is the honeymoon period. The face looks very good during the honeymoon period. The patient rejoices that the process was very easy and I got a super result. Unfortunately, this result regresses with the re-stretching of the skin. In some patients, the face may even return to where you started aesthetically.
We call early relapse when the signs of aging return to the preoperative level in less than one year. Different facial rejuvenation surgery techniques have variable relapse rates. I designed the scientific study that analysed early relapses after different facelift surgery techniques in the medical literature and defined the early relapse diagnostic criteria for the first time in the literature. This subject is one of my special academic interests in facial aesthetics.
A self-developed method for the prevention of early relapse after facelift surgery;
- Sub-SMAS reconstruction of the retaining ligaments,
- Double-level SMAS plication,
- I have three different surgical techniques called intermediate fixation in deep plan facelift surgery.
If you have had surgery with me, I have performed not a classical subcutaneous facelift technique, but a deep plan facelift surgery using the advanced fixation techniques mentioned above. In my surgeries, the soft tissues of the face are fixed to the underlying bone, muscle structures and connective tissue system of the face with permanent sutures.
A rather tense facial appearance is normal in the first 48 hours after surgery. Facial tension may cause mild pain or discomfort that can be controlled with simple painkillers. For the first 6-8 weeks after surgery, it is normal to feel as if there is a mask hidden inside your face. All connective tissues of the face heal in 6-8 weeks just like bones, muscles and tendons. In this period, if you do not feel the tightness inside, the stiffness under the neck, under the neck, under the mouth and around the nose, the effect of that surgery will not last 10-15 years. Fluctuations especially on the sides and upper parts of the face, temporary folds under the temple and under the eyes may occur in patients whose mid-face is lifted vertically. These are completely normal and temporary. Advanced fixation techniques may temporarily weaken the facial nerves due to pressure. We see temporary muscle laziness at a rate of approximately 8%. Rarely, the resolution of lymphatic oedema under the eye can exceed 3 months.
Apart from these, patients can often say that I see myself like someone else in the mirror.
The vast majority of patients who undergo deep plan facelift surgery and in whom advanced detection techniques are used in the surgery, can be involved in social life by camouflaging with an open hairstyle, make-up and accessories in 2-3 weeks. In some patients, recovery may be delayed a little longer. As there are individual differences in the healing process, I have never seen that the right and left halves of the same person's face heal at the same speed.
In summary, recovery requires a process.
Hearing this process and experiencing it personally after the operation are different things.
Even though you are well informed, you may need constant support from your doctor and you may need to hear some things over and over again in the postoperative period. I don't get bored with repetition, this is the norm of my job.
I explain to my patients in whom the face remains tense for a long time that this is actually not a completely negative situation, and that this early period of tension is very beneficial in terms of the permanence of the long-term effect of the surgery. Although some of my patients do not find my explanations convincing when they are in a state of postoperative "depression", I would like you to know that none of my patients have remained permanently tense after surgery, and I have never encountered a permanent surface deformation due to excessive skin tension in any of my patients.
On the contrary, I observed an early relapse rate of 4.8% in the first 188 facelift surgeries I performed before the development of advanced fixation techniques. This rate was reduced to 0.44% with the ligament reconstruction technique. In other words, the problem in facelift surgery is not that the face is tense in the early postoperative period, but that it cannot maintain the tension in the long term. I have presented my solutions to this important problem in many international congresses in different continents.
If you have an idea that the tension or fixation strength of the face is incorrectly adjusted, immediately put it out of your mind, go and brew a cup of tea. Use a moisturising skin treatment to reduce the feeling of tension and relax.
You can always contact me for your early concerns after facelift surgery (of course, if I performed your surgery).
Stay with love,
Stay nice.
OB