Face Procedures

There is no one facelift (rhytidectomy). Just as no two faces are alike, so, too, should no two facelifts be just alike. In fact, we often use multiple techniques in a facelift, because our goal is to harmonize the features and contours of your face.

A facelift is a procedure designed to treat the sagging cheek and jowl region of the face and tighten the skin of the neck. The effect of the facelift is to provide an enhanced and more youthful appearance.

One of the aesthetic changes that occurs with aging is loss of elastic integrity of the neck soft tissue. Loose skin, sometimes accompanied by excessive fat volume, accumulates in the front of the neck; thus, the term “turkey neck.”

Because people come in all shapes and forms, each neck restoration is a unique project. Patients seeking cosmetic neck surgery also typically have skin laxity in other parts of their face. Under these circumstances, it is usually best to include some of the elements of a traditional face-neck lift when approaching their neck. With this technique, not only the skin, but also the deeper muscle and fascia are tightened. For this type of patient, without the incisions of a traditional face lift, an unattractive bulge of skin would be left in front of the ear.

Upper eyelid blepharoplasty, whether performed for cosmetic or functional reasons, is one of the most common operations performed on the face. There are many reasons people opt for this procedure, with one of the most common being that excess skin on the upper eyelid contributes to a tired appearance.

Excess upper eyelid skin may also interfere with the application of eye shadow, and it can even cause the obstruction of your superior field of vision. However, all of this can be corrected with a blepharoplasty, which is the medical term for the surgical enhancement of either the upper or lower eyelids.

Sun exposure, stress, age, and genetic factors all contribute to the tired look associated with wrinkles and puffiness of the eyelids. Blepharoplasty is the medical term for the surgical enhancement of either the upper or lower eyelids.

The most common reason a patient requests the lower eyelid blepharoplasty is to correct puffiness. This condition is caused by the bulging of fat under the eye.

One of the earliest procedures to elevate the brow was the bi-coronal lift, which uses an incision that goes across the top of the head, just behind the hairline. This is, perhaps, the most powerful type of lift because it gives the surgeon optimal exposure and opportunities to correct the entire forehead. The corrugator muscles that cause the “11 lines” between our eyes can be removed as well. It is, however, the most invasive, and is used infrequently today.

A less invasive yet effective alternative is to use two, smaller incisions that straddle the temporal crest, behind the hairline. This method is capable of making favorable improvements to the lateral brow by tightening specific fascial layers of the forehead soft tissue.

Otoplasty techniques include surgical operations to restore or enhance the appearance of an ear or the ears. Deformity of the external ear may be due to trauma, the treatment for cancer, or a congenital condition such as the protruding ear.

The most common congenital ear deformity treated at Horizons Plastic Surgery is the protruding ear. The protruding ear appears either at birth or in early childhood and can involve either one or both ears.

Piercing of the earlobe is popular and often is performed at a young age. As the years pass, the hole can become enlarged because of heavy earrings and/or a loss of skin elasticity. A sudden pulling of an earring can result in immediate trauma and a split in the lobe.

Likewise, gauges can result in significant stretching of the earlobe anatomy and lead to an undesirable appearance. As its popularity has decreased, surgical correction is often sought out.

SmartLipo body contouring is a minimally invasive, laser-assisted liposuction procedure that can be used to treat small areas of fat on the neck. This technique shares many of the features of traditional liposuction, however, it can be performed without general anesthesia and utilizes laser energy to break up the fat.

Patients receive oral sedation prior to the procedure; the targeted areas are infiltrated with an anesthetic solution to prevent bleeding and control pain. A very thin tube, containing the SmartLipo laser fiber, is then inserted into the targeted fatty areas through a small incision.

A patient wishing to use his or her own fat to reduce the appearance of facial wrinkles may be a candidate for autologous fat grafting. During this procedure, fat is harvested from either the patient’s abdomen or thigh, processed, and then injected into the soft-tissue of the face to reduce the wrinkle.

Autologous fat grafting may also be advantageous in breast reconstruction. It is a particularly valuable technique when applied to the breast tissue that has been treated with radiation.