Sydney plastic surgeon Dr Darryl Hodgkinson says modern facelifting techniques can recontour the neck and jawline to achieve a natural-looking, more youthful appearance without any telltale signs of surgery.

 

Before and after facelift by Dr Hodgkinson

Many women are afraid of having a facelift because they do not want to look tight or unnatural. Instead, they want to look fresh, more youthful and rejuvenated.

To achieve a natural-looking result, my preferred technique is the Fogli lift, which combines a deep plane facelift and neck lift. This procedure was originally developed by French surgeon Alain Fogli and it focuses on creating a natural-looking contour to the neck and jaw line.

It is important that all the aesthetic units of the face and neck be addressed at the same time to create a look that is natural. Correcting just the face and not the neck or vice versa can leave a person looking incongruous, with different areas of the face appearing to have aged at different rates. This is always a telltale sign of surgery.

‘All the aesthetic units of the face and neck should be addressed at the same time’

A successful facelift must address the underlying tissues of the face. Skin lifts, threads and other lesser lifts use tension on the skin to create a more youthful contour. I Hodgkinsonbelieve employing the skin like ‘cling wrap’ gives the face a tight and unnatural appearance.

The sagging muscles and tissues of the face must first be tightened so the skin can be gently redraped across the newly sculpted, more youthful contours to avoid any tension on the skin or incision lines and thereby help avoid any obvious scars.

Other areas of the face can be rejuvenated at the same time if necessary, such as the brow, eyes or even resurfacing of the skin, to create an overall more youthful-looking appearance.