Facelifts are popular among men and women as young as their forties and well into their senior years. The manual repositioning of the skin and superficial muscle tissue of the mid-face, forehead, and even the neck (depending on the extensiveness of the lift procedure) can improve the angles of the jawline and the position of the brow. What the traditional facelift has always lacked was the ability to restore the appearance of fullness to the mid-face. That’s where fat comes in.
Aging the Facial Shape
One of the telltale signs of aging is the elongation of the face. The face appears to get longer, when really what is happening is that structure is decreasing. This happens because fat pads in the mid-face and temples weaken and fall to the lower part of the face. Without adequate fatty tissue in the mid-face, contours deflate. Beneath the surface, muscle tissue is also degenerating, further exacerbating the appearance of flatness.
How Fat Maximizes Youthfulness
During a facelift, an incision is typically made at the hairline in the area around the ears. For an extended facelift that includes the forehead, an incision may also be made at the temple and or crown. Through incisions, muscle and tissue are adjusted to sit higher on bone structure. Excess skin is removed to reduce sagging. Combining fat transfer into the process, the facelift is topped off with injections of organic fat cells into the mid-face, temples, and other areas as needed to restore youthful contouring.
Fat is an excellent alternative to dermal fillers as a complement to facelift surgery because a high percentage of the cells that are transferred from one part of the body to the face integrate entirely with existing fat. This integration leads to long-term improvements in the shape of the face.
Dr. Tattini has obtained Ivy League training in plastic and cosmetic surgery, which has kept him at the forefront of innovative rejuvenating techniques since establishing his Bloomington, IL practice. To learn more about facial rejuvenation with a facelift and fat grafting, call (309) 664-1007.
