The Consultation

During your consultation for facelift or neck lift surgery, your surgeon will ask you “what about your middle and lower face bothers you,” and may also ask you to talk about other, related areas of your face, such as your skin tone, facial hollowing, neck fullness, or cheek position. Your surgeon may also ask you to point out, very specifically, what you’d like to see changed. Identifying exactly what needs to be addressed is the cornerstone of good results.

Your surgeon should then examine your face to determine what type of skin and facial structure you have and exactly what must be corrected to achieve optimum results. Almost all patients require lifting along the jawline to address jowls. Many patients also have excess fullness or sagging under the jawline and in the front of the neck. Some patients have extensive aging changes or a tendency toward unpleasant skin wrinkling.

Your surgeon should also review your medical history form, and may ask for some additional information from you. Current and past smoking habits, or the use of nicotine gum or patch products, are especially important to as nicotine dramatically reduces the chances of proper healing. Your surgeon will also pay special attention to parts of your medical history that need to be considered carefully when undertaking face lifting surgery, such as uncontrolled high blood pressure, or any medications or supplements you may take that thin the blood. In general, all over-the-counter pain/fever reducers (except Tylenol) are off-limits for 2 weeks before and after facelift surgery, as are ginkgo biloba, St. John’s Wort, or high doses of fish oil, flax seed oil, or vitamin E.

For more information, please contact us.