Lasers, Facelift, or Injections: What’s Best for Facial Aging?

It’s a fact that life brings changes and that for most of us, the skin on our faces is the proof of change. Some of us show the proof more than others and it’s all attributed to the lifestyle we have lived. Things like what you eat, your personal habits, and whether or not you are or have been a smoker can all make the skin on our faces show the signs of age quicker than others.

What should you do to reduce sagging skin on your face? Many of us have stood in our bathrooms and looked in the mirror while pulling our facial skin back to see what we used to look like. You have options to make this happen by seeing a facial plastic surgeon expert and exploring whether you want a laser resurfacing, a facelift, or injections

Laser Resurfacing vs. Facelift

When you compare the benefits of laser resurfacing to those of a facelift, it isn’t possible to determine if one procedure is more beneficial than the other because they are not in the same category. They are both fruits, but one is an apple and the other is orange.

Both of these procedures are used to rejuvenate the facial flesh, but the reason for getting them is not the same. A facelift’s purpose is to lift saggy flesh and muscle off the face and the process is to remove fat in the face and neckline as well. Laser resurfacing smooths out fine line wrinkles on the face, but it does not work for tightening of the skin and it won’t solve the problem of saggy neck flesh.

There are cases where patients require both procedures and will often get them both done at the same time.

What is a Facelift?

A facelift is a surgical procedure, laser resurfacing is not.

When a facelift is performed, the cheeks, jawline, and neck are lifted to establish renewed support to the face and neck. The muscles in the face are rejuvenated while the skin gets repositioned and any excess fat or skin that needs removal is taken off surgically.

For a plastic surgeon to provide a patient with a natural look post-surgery, the procedure requires detailed dissection of the face performed layer by layer. This requires a great deal of skill and a physician with a meticulous hand.

According to Dr. Anthony Bared, a Miami-based facial plastic surgeon, there are several signs of age and lifestyle on our faces that a facelift can address, such as:

* jowls (sometimes called turkey neck) caused by the loss of muscle tone
* deposits of fat and sagging skin that causes the notorious double chin
* loosened and saggy skin across the face as a result of collagen loss due to aging
* saggy and loose skin from substantial weight loss

What is Laser Resurfacing?

Laser resurfacing does not involve surgery. There is not just one type of laser treatment, there are many. Multiple types of lasers differ in strength. The more power used in the laser for the resurfacing, the more healing time will be needed.

Higher power laser resurfacing has results that offer much more longevity as well, though. resurfacing can be done by itself or in conjunction with other procedures, most commonly a facelift.

Facelift vs. Injections

Facial injections have flourished in popularity. What needs to be realized, though, is that there are limits to what injectables can accomplish.

The furrows that begin to wear into our foreheads can be smoothed out with Botox injections by the relaxation of the muscles in the forehead that cause these trails of stress to run from temple to temple.

Some patients are in search of plump cheeks and voluminous lips and erasure of wrinkles and fine lines around their mouth and their nostrils. Juvaderm and Restylane are what are usually used for this.

But for the patients that are wanting loose skin to be tightened and for their neckline and face to be thinned out, injectables are not the answer. They cannot accomplish what a facelift can.

Fillers can help younger people ward off the need for plastic surgery but they won’t give the results that a facelift can give. The reason for getting a facelift is not to restructure your face.

You should still look like you, but a younger you. This is what fillers are supposed to do as well, but there are limitations of how many are advisable and if those limitations are ignored the patient no longer looks like themselves and their facial features begin to look unnatural.

The Pros and Cons of a Facelift

If you are considering going the route of a facelift, this is a major decision in your life. You want to be as educated as possible. You should formulate a list of questions to ask your doctor when you go for your initial consultation. Some of the pros and cons of a facelift include:

Pros
After just one facelift surgery, you will see an immediate improvement in your skin’s condition. A facelift can last up to a decade and can also rejuvenate and recontour the jaw and neckline. While undergoing your facelift procedure, if you do not like the size of your nose or the shape of your chin you can have features like this worked on during the same procedure. If you and your doctor have agreed that laser resurfacing is a good option for you in addition to a facelift, that work can be done during the facelift procedure as well.

Cons
To not be disappointed post-surgery, it is important to realize you are not doing this to have a different face. You are still going to be you. Your face will still be your face. When you look in the mirror once you have healed you will see a younger version of you with all the same beauty you already had before surgery. This is not a reconstruction of your face, it is rejuvenation.

Keep in mind that you will need up to two weeks of recovery. This is invasive surgery, indeed, and your body has to have the time for you to rest and heal.

Facelifts are not permanent fixes. The same way your skin showed signs of aging before you had your lift done, that skin will continue to age. The hands of time are not stopped. Some patients find themselves feeling down when some of the fine lines and wrinkles return. To maintain a youthful look your doctor achieved for you, maintenance will be needed.

The Pros and Cons of Laser Resurfacing

Pros
The results you receive from laser resurfacing are going to vary according to the power of the laser used but some of the great results that can be achieved include: smoother skin tone, tightening of the skin, wrinkles and fine lines erased, acne scar treatment, age spot elimination, removal of large pores, and collagen production stimulation.

Cons
The biggest risk you can take is if you do not get your work done by a qualified clinician. The greater the power of laser holds the greater risk that there could be irreversible lightening or darkening of the skin, scarring, and horrible cold sores. Even though the downtime for laser procedures is not as long as the healing time for a facelift, there is some recovery time that is required. Patients should know that they will have patchy redness on their skin as a normal side effect and it will get worse before it gets better.