Ask the Doctor at Saint John’s: A New Look at Facelifts

Q: I’m considering a facelift. What are some things I should think about?

By Robert Amonic, M.D., Staff Physician at Saint John’s Health Center

The first time I meet with someone who’s interested in having a facelift, I make sure she knows my philosophy of treatment: don’t overdo it. That means she might keep a few wrinkles. But she’s going to obtain her objective of looking years younger, and at the same time maintain a completely natural appearance.

Sometimes an individual will come to see me because she’s dissatisfied with the plastic surgery she’s had elsewhere. If her skin has been so stretched that any nonprofessional can pick her facelift out of a crowd, I can’t help her. At least not until her skin begins to give again.

No facelift lasts forever. About 6 to 8 years is the usual length of time, and that span decreases as people age. A new facelift can be performed when the skin begins to sufficiently sag. Many clients love their initial facelifts, and they consult with me after 7 years or so to find out if they can look the way they did after the first procedure.

Often we can accomplish the individual’s goals, and we enthusiastically proceed with the next facelift. I get a great deal of satisfaction from helping patients maintain a more youthful look in a healthy, realistic manner.

Approximately 10 percent of my facelift clients return after a year or so for a touch-up. It’s because we went with the more moderate approach to begin with that we now have that option.

There’s an enormous range of good candidates for successful facelifts. One 24-year-old patient of mine had a disease that robbed her skin of its natural elasticity. I performed plastic surgery that changed her life. One of my best clients was an 88-year-old woman who sailed through the procedure. Generally, women start to think about having a facelift when they’re in their 40s, 50s, and 60s.

There’s been a recent surge of interest among the public in plastic surgery. Unfortunately, no law prohibits any doctor from calling him or herself a plastic surgeon. If a person is in fact considering a facelift, there are many advantages to visiting a physician who is board certified in plastic surgery.

For one thing, this increases the chance of a successful procedure and decreases the risk of something going wrong. If something should go wrong, a patient can be confident that her trained plastic surgeon will know the best way to proceed. And isn’t feeling confident in every respect part of what every facelift should be about?

Dr. Amonic, board certified in plastic and reconstructive surgery, is on staff at Saint John’s Health Center. For more information about Dr. Amonic or other Saint John’s services, please call (310) 829-8990 or visit the website at www.stjohns.org. For a physician referral or a second opinion, please call 1-888-ASK-SJHC.

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