The Popular Mini Facelift

A full facelift is a very invasive procedure that creates some extensive swelling and bruising. The recovery is involved. In contrast, for a mini facelift Dr. Herte uses shorter incisions and manipulates underlying tissue to a lesser degree. This makes for less tissue trauma and bruising, and an easier recovery.

A mini facelift also gives the patient a refreshed look that isn’t overly noticeable. A full facelift delivers fairly dramatic changes in wrinkling and skin sagging and it’s pretty obvious to others that the patient, while looking great, still has had a facelift. A mini facelift delivers subtle changes that others will notice, but they won’t be able to put their finger on why you look younger.

When considering what to do, it helps to understand the goals of a mini facelift. Dr. Herte seeks to tighten and lift the cheek and jawline skin in a mini facelift. She also reduces the skin “overhang” at the nasolabial fold. A mini facelift is great for patients who have previously had a full facelift and have had the deeper tissues repositioned to eliminate the drooping that comes with aging. The mini facelift can maintain those results and “refresh” your appearance.

Disadvantages to a mini facelift

Everyone wants the procedure that does the most and is at the same time the least invasive. But when considering a mini facelift, you need to weigh its limitations.

First, because it targets mainly the cheek area, if you have serious laxity on your neck and a loss of jawline definition a mini facelift won’t help. It doesn’t target the neck area. A more classical facelift with a focus on direct neck tightening would be better.

Also, because a mini facelift involves only limited incisions, tissue repositioning is minimal. Without correcting the sagging in the deep tissues, a mini facelift is more prone to an early relapse.

Some people assume they can possibly have repeated mini facelifts to achieve the results of a full facelift. But, again, this doesn’t address the sagging deeper tissues.

If you want to look refreshed, but don’t need lots of deep tissue maintenance, a mini facelift with Dr. Herte can be a great procedure. Call us at 702-732-9600 to schedule a consultation.