The Face Lift: A History

Few forms of plastic surgery are as ubiquitous today as the face lift, and why not? No other procedure gives people the chance to completely turn back the clock when it comes to their aging features. Women in their 50s and above can look ten or twenty years younger with the help of a surgeon’s guiding hand. In a culture as youth obsessed as ours, there is no wonder why the operation is so popular. Of course, the procedure is really nothing new. Here we take a look at the history of this amazing medical development.

Over 100 years ago, the first cosmetic face lift was performed. Of course, the procedure in those days was quite a bit simpler than those being done on the Hollywood stars of today. The surgeon would cut away a bit of the flesh from the patient’s scalp and then pull the remaining skin up and over the gap. The facial features were pulled taut and the desired look was achieved. Of course, anyone who left the surgeon’s office with those results today would sue for malpractice. After only a few months, the scar would begin to stretch and even the minimal effects that had been achieved would be lost as the skin started to drag down again.

To improve on the operation, doctors began lifting the front edge when they made the initial incision in a patient’s forehead. Doing this, it would change the way the patient healed from the surgery as well as making it easier to manipulate the skin during surgery. The skin would reattach in the same way, except it would be doing so at a higher point than it had been previously, thus eliminating the eventual dragging that ruined the earlier forms of the operation. During this time it was also realized that surgeons needed to pull the skin completely away from the underlying tissues to achieve a more permanent and impressive result.

Today, the procedure known as the face lift is more technologically advanced than ever before, and a good surgeon can get results that can only be termed miraculous. Some people; prior to having work done, wonder how long the effects will last. The question is not an easy one to answer. A person who has had the surgery will continue to experience the effects of aging after the process. But they will have an extra ten years (appearance-wise) that they didn’t have before. So someone who had the surgery at 50 may look 40 after the operation, and 50 when they are 60. Of course, results will vary from person to person.

As always, if an individuals chooses to undergo the face lift procedure, they should do their research beforehand to make sure it is the right thing for them. Being prepared and having the rights questions is a fail-safe way to ensure the best results from any type of surgery.