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Bhupendra Patel, MD
  • 75 North Medical Drive
    Salt Lake City Utah 84132
    Tel: 801-585-6641


Procedures

MID Face Lift - Anatomy

Basic Anatomy

    • The shape of your nose, the prominence of your chin and cheekbones, and the height and width of your face are determined by the anatomy of the facial bones.
    • Aside from changes in the teeth, very few of the changes we see in the aging face are due to bony changes. The soft tissue overlying the bony framework exists basically in three layers, each of which contributes to aging changes in the face. The 4~cpest layer consists of the muscles of facial expression.
    • These muscles are arranged around the forehead, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and neck. Al
    • The bones of the face, the facial skeleton, determine the overall structure and shape of the face.
    • l of the movements of the face are due to contraction of these muscles.
    • Stretching and loss of tone of these muscles will result in sagging of the face. The most important of these is the platysma muscle, which is a thin sheet-like muscle that extends from the lower neck up to the lower face. In youth this muscle is tight and gives the throat and neck a clean and open look.
    • With the passage of time, this muscle loosens and the area under the chin becomes loose and folds appear - these folds are sometimes referred to as the "turkey gobbler" effect. The prominent bands that often exist on each side in the upper front of the neck are actually the front edges of the platysma muscle.
    • The outermost layer is the skin.
      • As we age, the facial skin becomes looser and more wrinkled.
      • This process is prominent with excessive sun exposure and smoking.
      • Your choice of parents is also important. youthful skin definitely is inherited.
      • With time the elasticity of the skin decreases, and becomes looser, just as your socks stretch out and actually seem to be bigger than when the elastic was tight.
      • As the skin becomes looser, creases and wrinkles form at the areas of greatest facial mobility.
      • The development of these creases and wrinkles can be likened to folding a sheet of paper. if we take a fresh piece of paper, it has no creases.
      • If we then fold it in half and reopen it a crease is there, and always will be visible.
      • If we repeatedly fold this paper through the same crease, the crease will become deeper and more noticeable each time we repeat the fold.
      • The areas of the face with the most movement (the eyes, mouth, and forehead) show the greatest changes.
    • The middle layer, the fatty layer, lies between the muscular layer below and the skin above. Initially the fat was evenly distributed throughout the face. With the passage of time the fat responds to gravity and is pulled downwards, accumulating in the jowl area and the area under the skin. The fat decreases in the cheek area thus giving hollowness to the cheeks.
  • General Facts
    • There is no "best time" for a facelift. In certain individuals with premature aging changes, a facelift may be indicated at age 35. Assuming good health there is no upward limit.
    • Most patients are in the 40 to 65 age group
    • Approximately 25% of facelift patients are men
    • This percentage has recently been increasing, as men have become more comfortable with facial aesthetic surgery. A full face in an obese patient is more difficult to treat, and overweight patients should try to diet to approach a more normal weight to achieve the best results.
    • The ideal facelift candidate is a healthy patient of normal body weight, but with skin laxity of the jowl line and neck.
    • Patients who smoke and drink or have had excessive skin exposure have higher rates of complications and may not achieve optimum results.
    • The ideal patient is dissatisfied with their facial aging changes, arid wish to recapture some of their youthful appearance. The patient should want these changes to satisfy their own desires and not those of another person.
    • Expectations should be realistic: facial rejuvenation via an operation will not improves one's position at work, will not improves relationships with the opposite sex, will not save a failing marriage, will not cure underlying emotional or psychological difficulties, and will not recapture one's lost youth.