As with all cosmetic enhancements, it’s not what you need, it’s what you want. So to get the look you want, should you go for a facelift or an injectable?
Although both treatments are sold as making the face more youthful and attractive, they do so in different ways. Depending on how age is showing in your face, your needs may vary.
What Facelifts Do For Your Appearance
Facelifts do many things that injectables cannot. For instance, they are the only way to remove excess, saggy skin from the neck, overhanging eyebrows, or jowls. The jowl treatments are particularly growing in popularity, making facelifts a common procedure among men, especially men in business or marketing positions.
Facelifts also do better at ironing out deep wrinkles in the fattier parts of the face, like the cheeks, and thinner skin, especially skin under the eyes. Specifically, if your age shows in sleep-deprived eyes or deep smile lines, a face lift will be much better at making you look younger.
What Injectables Do For Your Face
Injectables come in two categories: fillers (like Juvederm) and relaxants (like Botox). They work a little differently.
Fillers replace missing collagen, the protein that makes skin look young, with either more collagen, more extracellular matrix, or synthetic materials. They work best around the mouth or in the forehead to plump out wrinkles, smooth and contour skin, and add moisture.
Relaxants soften the muscles that hold tension in the face. Often, our wrinkles are actually caused by overly tense muscles. Relaxants work best at softening wrinkles in the forehead, lifting the eyes, and fixing frown lines.
What If I Want Both?
That’s common. However, we’d recommend starting with injectables. They are inexpensive, have short recovery times, and their effects are temporary. If you get the look you want with injectables, keep up with them. But, if you don’t, then consider a facelift.
What Happens Over Time?
Injectables are temporary, but as we said, they are inexpensive. You can go for an injectable procedure every one or two years to keep a youthful approach. However, as you age, you may want to add more injectables to address any problems that come up.
Facelifts are more permanent. A facelift immediately makes a person look 3-5 years younger. It also slows the appearance of aging. Five years after a facelift, most people look 8-10 years younger. 20 years on, people look 10-15 years younger. Over time, if you’re unhappy with how your results are holding up, you can touchup trouble areas with injectables.
May 22nd 2015