Forehead and the eyelids – This is corrected by brow lift.

Area between the eyes and the mouth – The key areas here that are targeted are the lower eyelids and the baggy puffy eyes and the cheeks and the area around the mouth. Corrected individually these are done by the mid face lift.

Jowls, neckline and the jaw line – corrected use the lower face lift

Most of the people when they age will tend to have the loose skin because of the loss of the elasticity of the skin and the main area where that is more prominent is the loose handing skin on the neck and the jaw line. The corners of the mouth also begun to droop with age and that is what is also corrected.

In the traditional lower face lift a big incision is made beginning at the front of the ear and the going down and behind the ear. In the case of the endoscopic face lift the incision that is made is small and the surgeon inserts a camera via the incision to see what is happening internally while doing the surgery.

Once the incision is made the surgeon pulls the skin, drains the excess fat and sutures the skin to give a tightened lower face. This will get rid of the loose skin on the neck.

You may heard the terms S-lift and SMAS lift for the lower face lift. Both of these techniques involve a way of making an incision such that lower face can be tightened.

Tip – If you have a neck which show excessive signs of aging then it is better to combine lower face lift with neck lift.

Side Effects – The side effects are pain and swelling. You are advised to take complete rest as well as make sure that you do not do any exercises and should have no exposure to sunlight.

Benefits are that you will see better looking face and it is less painful and less of swelling than the full face lift.

Costs – The average cost of the lower face lift is around $5000 and it can vary based on the area and the city. On top of it you will have to add the aneaethesia costs as well as surgical facility costs.

The name face lift may be misleading to say that the entire face is lifted however what really happens is that laser resurfaces the targeted areas to remove the upper layer of the skin. This is similar to what happens in microdermabrasion and chemical peels. The best part of the laser face lift is that you can control the amount of skin to remove and that is a great help as then you can very easily make sure that the targeted area looks better. Another advantage over the traditional face lift is that you will not have any anesthesia to be administered and nor will there be any pain or swelling.

Recovery time – In general the recovery time is very less as there is no surgery involved though in a lot of cases the discoloration may be there of the skin for a week. After that there will no discoloration and the skin will be gin to look normal. That said keep in kind that if you have very dark pigmented skin then you should check for other procedure as laser resurfacing or laser face lift may not be the bet thing for you.

The face lift with laser has a new technique called the Titan laser face lift . In this the Titan laser targets the deep layers to raise the skin temperature and have some collagen contraction. The outermost layers are not touched in this procedure.

There are a variety of techniques in laser technique itself like the CO2 laser resurfacing and the Erbium Yag lasers.

Tip – Remember this technique is not a true face lift and in case you need a proper face lift then get in touch with your cosmetic surgeon.

So people who are thinking of getting a look which you can get by traditional face lift surgery should think of going to a cosmetic surgeon rather than an acupuncturist.

Where to get the Acupuncture face lift?

There are licensed practitioners that do acupuncture healing and they have also learnt the cosmetic acupuncture techniques. In general the acupuncturist will give you a free consultation beforehand and in majority of the cases ten sessions are a standard. That said each session may have different costs based on the type and the intensity of the treatment.

Benefits

It is non surgical and hence no recovery time is needed.

Fine lines are removed and the deep wrinkles will become less deep.

Acupuncture as a whole is a technique to give you overall body rejuvenation and the facial acupuncture will give your body added vitality and rejuvenation.

Improves muscle tone

The average cost of a session for cosmetic acupuncture may cost you around $200.

There are a lot of critics of this new acupuncture cosmetics technique and they say that it is not the real face lift and you will not feel the difference. A lot of people are definitely trying this and in the end even if you do not get the desired face lift you will still have a good body and facial muscle rejuvenation which will give you good vitality and energy.

In the surgery the surgeon will make the incisions around these areas and will adjust the skin such that the face is tightened and in general will also reduce the fact in these areas. There are in general two ways to do this. On is the traditional surgery where big incision are made and then the surgeons will adjust the skin and in other cases the endoscopic treatment is done where small incisions are made and the camera is used to see the what is happening internally. Each surgeon has its won preference and there is nothing right or wrong in using one over the other.

After the mid face lift is done you will see that the eyes do not look tired anymore and the cheeks are fuller. This gives the entire mid face area a very fresh look.

The other two main areas which are not touched in the mid face lift surgery are the

Forehead and eyelids

Neck

Recovery time – In general it takes about a weeks time to recover from the mid face lift surgery. The benefit being that you will have less recovery time and also it will give a rejuvenated look in less costs and pain than the full face lift.

You will more pain and swelling in the immediate 24 to 48 hours after the surgery. Avoid going out of the house in first week so as to avoid any direct sunlight as well as any stress.

The average cost of mid face lift is about $4000. This does not include the cost of anesthesia or the surgery facility. By adding these costs the average cost will be around $ 8000- $10000.

The liquid face lift procedure is done to patients who want to

Have their face rejuvenated and look less aged

Or they want to have less wrinkled look

Or they want to look fresh and have better contours of the face.

Dermal fillers Used

The dermal fillers used in the Liquid face lift are

Botox

Juvderm Ultra

Juvederm Ultra Plus,

Radiesse

Restylane

Perlane

Sculptra

The main thing to note is that almost always all the surgeons will use Botox to relax the muscles and then use the new age dermal fillers to give a fuller volume to the targeted areas.

For volumizing effect the fillers that are generally used are – Sculptra and Juvederm Plus

For anti wrinkle treatment – Restylane is used

For lip augmentation – Juvederm and/or Botox is used

The major areas targeted in the full liquid face lift are

Lips, mid cheek and the Marionette lines

Advantages over the face lift surgery are that you will not have to have any surgery and you can very easily be out of the surgeon’s office in an hour or so. Plus there is no permanent reconfiguration of the face and the process is totally reversible as the dermal fillers effect will only last for six months to a year.

There may be several post treatment visits to the surgeons office so as to make sure everything is going fine and he may do some touch up treatments when the effect of the dermal fillers starts to weaken.

Side Effects

There may be some swelling and redness that may be there. For reducing the swelling make sure that you use ice packs after consultation with the doctors.

Average cost

Based on 2007 Plastic Surgery Statistics from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) the average cost of the facelift surgery was about $6792.

Now that is not the only cost that is there when go in for the face lift surgery. The face lift prices that you need to factor in are the cost of the surgical facility, the anesthesia costs and any post care costs. If you add in other fees like anesthesiologist fees and facility fees then the total cost on the upper side can go up to $15000-$20000.

Now that said cost will vary from state to state and city to city. The cities like Miami, New York and Los Angeles will have more costly face lift surgery than a lot of other places.

Again there are various procedures which are there when it comes to facelift and the average cost of each procedure will vary.

The standard face lift , the lower face lift and the mid face lift are more or less the same with no major difference in the prices.

However the cost of the mini face lift also called the weekend face lift will be around $4000 – $4500. Same holds true for the average cost of the Thread face lift and the costs will hover around $4000 mark for this procedure.

A lot of surgeon facility offers the financing facility and in most cases this is offered in conjunction with a specialized financing company. This will help as then you can very easily get the treatment done and then pay in easy monthly installments.

The way these work is that they tighten the facial tissues and then reducing the wrinkles. The way they improve the appearance by removing the dead skin cells from the upper layer and they have serums which exfoliate the skin. In addition you will need to follow up with moisturizers to keep the skin hydrated and in perfect condition.

The results will generally appear after the first use but for the full benefit you will have to apply the cream for some time.

One of main instant face lift treatments have been give out by Avon and is known as the ANEW CLINICAL Instant Face Lift. – This instant face lift formula claims that most of the visible sagginess will be gone by the end of the 2 weeks. In fact the skin will start appear firmed up after the first application.

Another one is the DermaSilk 5 Minute Face Lift Instant Tightening Serum

Instant face lift tape.

Apart from this there is another way to get an instant face lift and that is known as the tape method. In this the tape or the bands are used to lift the sagging skin. You will need to do this procedure for a few minutes and then you can get the lift on your skin.

In the tape procedure the tape is used to a special tape is used to wrap around the face and then it is removed after putting it on for a few hours. This way you are effectively pulling up the loose skin and it will then help to get the skin in better shape. You can do this at home using the theatrical tape also. You will need to be careful when you are doing the face lift tape all by yourself. I would suggest that you go to an expert who can do the face lift tape procedure for you.

The benefit of this tape lift is that there is no surgery involved.

On the other hand having to wear the tape all day can be problematic especially of you want to venture outside home.

That said there have been a plethora of face lift creams now in the market which claim to have the same miraculous results as the face lift surgery. Let us have a detailed look at what these creams contain and how you can use them.

In most cases these are cosmetic creams manufactured by the well known cosmetic companies and they promise you reduction of fine line and wrinkles. The challenge with these face lift creams is that these have slow results. If you read the instructions to most of the creams have the instructions that you need to have the creams applied for about 2 months or more to see an visible difference.

Most of them which contain the less dangerous AHA’s are more like the anti wrinkle cream type creams which will work well to give you a fine appearance. The main ingredient in true face lift creams are the amino acids in the form of acetyl hexapeptide which goes by the name of Argireline.

While applying apply the cream on the forehead as well as on the areas where you see fine lines and wrinkles. The fact of the matter is that these creams will never be a true substitute for the face lift surgery and may only work at best on the fine lines and wrinkles.

Here are some of the brand names that have a face lift cream like the

Perricone MD – Amine Complex Face Lift Cream

This cream has Vitamin C Ester which is a very powerful anti oxidant and patented product called Perricone DMAE.

Key areas targeted

The main areas where the mini face lift is targeted are the cheeks and the jaw line and the neck. The added advantage is of course the lower cost.

If you are in your 30’s or 40’s and your face is beginning to show signs of sagging then you are the most ideal candidate for the mini face lift rather than a full face lift. As you age your skin will droop and in the ages between 30s and 40s you do not have severe wrinkles so you need to be only concerned about eliminating only those small signs of aging.

The procedure entails making small incisions to remove the sagginess near the neck area, jowls and the cheeks. There is the endoscopic facelift technology that is also used for a mini face lift. The mini face lift will never correct the forehead wrinkles or the brow area droopiness and you will have to go for the full facelift or the lower face lift to improve that. That said the endoscopic technique involved have three or more small cuts via which the fat is removed and the shape of the area reconfigured. The surgeon watches the area via the camera inserted under the skin. Mini face lift can also be done via the endoscopic face lift where by a full incision is made.

The mini face lift cost is less as compares to full face lift surgery mainly because of the fact that it will require less anesthesia and less time for recovery.

Mini face lift recovery time is about 48 hours and that is why the name weekend face lift

In fact the biggest single benefit of the non surgical face lift surgery is the fact that it can substantially reduce the time taken to do the surgery as well as it will reduce significantly the post operative recovery time. Now in traditional face lift surgery the major costs are involves in post operative care and these can be significantly reduced in the face lifts without surgery.

Here are some of the more commonly known minimally invasive surgeries in brief

Thermage – This treatment is one of the more widely used non invasive treatment which is sued by the dermatologists used to reduce the appearance of wrinkles and give a rejuvenated look to the face. The way it works is that heat is used to stimulate the production of collagen where the wrinkles are more. Collagen provides the necessary elasticity to give the skin new look and helps in reducing the wrinkles. The total time taken by Thermage is about one hour.

Microcurrent face lift or the Bio-Ultimate facelift – As the name suggests the small currents of electricity are applied to the face and the affected areas. These currents in turn stimulate the production of collagen and elastin and this helps as the collagen and elastin will then stimulate the cells to the make the face appear more rejuvenated and there will be big changes in the aging effects on the face.

Laser face lift – Laser technology has been used for treating all sorts of body and face issues including the use of laser to correct the eye vision. That said in the laser face lift a small beam of laser to tighten the outer contours of the face. This tightening helps in reducing the fine lines and wrinkles on the face.

Face Lift Creams – there are a lot of face lift creams that are available in the market. These creams have the required concentration of amino acids like acetyl hexapeptide and alpha Hydroxy acid to tighten the facial contours.

These above procedures are all considered to be the non surgical face lift procedures and of course are very effective in getting rid of fine lines and wrinkles.

Each has its own set of challenges which I will be discussing in detail in my later posts one by one.