The Facelift Alternatives: Tightening Devices and Volume Restoration
“I don’t plan to grow old gracefully. I plan to have face-lifts until my ears meet.”
~ Rita Rudner
Before Botox®, before Restalyne® and Thermage® and all the other lotions, potions, lasers, products and procedures we’ve catalogued throughout this book, the default term for any surgical cosmetic procedure for the last few decades was pretty much this: facelift. “Tight was right” and less wasn’t even an issue; more was better and, quite often, not quite good enough.
“When are you getting a facelift?”
“Did you see Maryanne’s new facelift?”
“The plastic surgeon said I needed a facelift.”
“Do you think I need a facelift?”
“How soon before I can get another facelift?”
Questions like these and so many more were popular fare at water coolers, gyms and PTA luncheons throughout the land and, without any other clear options, facelifts became the end-all and be-all of plastic surgery.
How times have changed. Today there are so many other non-surgical options and so much patient- and doctor-driven education to inform the various surgical procedures that now exist that most of us realize there are many steps on the way to a facelift; that having a facelift is not the inevitable costly, surgical and intensive procedure we all must “face” one day down the road. This chapter is designed to help you discover what those alternatives are and, more importantly, where you fit on the “do I need a facelift?” scale. In other words, we will teach you a new scale to use that doesn’t necessarily involve how old you are or what you think you need.
WARNING: Age is NOT the determining factor in whether or not you need a facelift. In our practices we’ve both learned that age is not necessarily an indicator along the “who does and who doesn’t need a facelift” spectrum. Both of us know dozens of individuals in their fifties who don’t need a facelift – and just as many in their forties who do.
Where do you fall on this scale? To determine the answer we must consider the two mitigating factors that we will be discussing in this chapter:
1.) Laxity: As we have discussed, laxity is our term for “looseness and sagginess,” otherwise known as drooping.
2.) Volume loss: As your skin ages it loses volume and becomes more brittle and less supple, creating a more severe look to the face.
To be Continued…
http://www.bhbeautysecrets.com
bhbeautysecrets@gmail.com
http://www.twitter.com/bhbeautysecrets
