You might not be feeling it, but are you looking tired, sad or upset? Does your facial structure seem to have an emotion of its own? Is your face not representative of the younger person inside? If you answered yes to any of these, we might have a solution for you!
What Is Midface Lift?
The midface lift, or vertical face lift, can provide an answer to all of the above issues. This lift, studied and developed by facial plastic surgeon Dr. Byun for over 20 years, targets the cheek and jowl areas that often suffer from drooping, thereby reversing the effects of age on the face.
Midface Lift Candidacy
You may be a good candidate for midface lift if you are bothered by sagging or drooping in your upper cheek and lower eyelid area. You might have a “heaviness” under your cheeks, prominent nasolabial folds or “hollowness” in the area under your eyes.
To qualify for surgery, you should be in good health and not have any chronic medical conditions that could affect your healing process. You should have reasonable expectations of surgery that you discuss with Dr. Byun during your pre-operative consultation.
How to Prepare for Midface Lift
To prepare for midface lift with Dr. Byun, you must stop smoking several weeks prior to surgery. You also need to stop taking certain medications or adjust your current medications if they raise the risk of surgical complications like bleeding. Dr. Byun’s team will provide you with a complete list of medications to avoid.
Dr. Byun may ask you to undergo lab testing or see your primary care provider for a medical evaluation prior to your surgery.
The Midface Lift Procedure Details
Midface lift is an outpatient procedure performed with anesthesia. It is a slightly shorter surgery than traditional facelift.
Dr. Byun utilizes techniques that he researched and developed himself, along with a specialized device called the Endotine Midface implant, a bioabsorbable suture used to connect delicate tissue. After making an incision along the hairline near the forehead, Dr. Byun inserts the suture into the cheek area as it will hold the cheek and malar fat pad in the correct position while the tissues heal and reattach. This procedure provides structure and vigor to the cheek area. Then, a more standard facelift incision is made at the side of the face by the ear. Excess skin is then excised in order to lift jowls along a sagging jaw, which, along with the cheek procedure, gives the face an altogether more youthful appearance.
Midface Lift Recovery
After midface lift, a bandage will be placed around your head. You need to have a companion drive you home and stay with you for at least the first 24 hours after your surgery.
Mild to moderate bruising and swelling are common after midface lift. Icing your face and keeping your head elevated at all times (even while sleeping) helps control these aftereffects.
You should be able to return to work about a week after the procedure, at which point the majority of the bruising and swelling will have subsided. It can take a few more weeks for residual bruising and swelling to resolve.
Will I Have Scars From Midface Lift?
Dr. Byun is careful to place the surgical incisions in the natural creases and transitions of the skin, so scarring is very discreet. With the proper scar management, your scars should fade very well over time.
How Long Do Midface Lift Results Last?
To maintain your midface lift results, you should follow healthy lifestyle habits such as eating a nutritious diet, staying active, protecting your face from the sun and maintaining your weight. Using professional-grade skin care results is also wise. Dr. Byun and our team can recommend a suitable product regimen as well as other procedures or treatments to help prolong your results.
Can I Combine Midface Lift With Other Procedures?
Patients often opt to combine midface lift with other rejuvenating procedures for more transformative results. For instance, midface lift can be combined with forehead lift to elevate a sagging or low brow position and smooth the skin of the forehead. Another option is to combine midface lift with blepharoplasty (eyelid lift) to remove excess eyelid skin and “open up” the eyes.
Another option is to combine midface lift with a non-surgical rejuvenation procedure. Chemical peels or laser skin resurfacing correct pigment irregularities such as sun spots, age spots or areas of hyperpigmentation. Injectable fillers like Juvederm can restore lost volume around the face.
Dr. Byun’s Midface Lift Technique
Dr. Byun first presented this technique to the National Plastic Surgery Meeting at the American College of Surgeons in Orlando in May 1998. He demonstrated how the aging of the midface involves the interconnected muscles and tissues of the lower eye, the cheek, and the corner of the mouth, and lifting this area meant all of these issues needed to be managed simultaneously. Therefore, Dr. Byun proposed that elevating the malar cheek pad using small incisions would solve all of these problems, reshaping the central face and restoring youth to the cheek.
We have provided a sample copy of an Operative Report. The procedure is subject to change per the patient’s needs.
PREOPERATIVE DIAGNOSIS: Facial rhytids
POSTOPERATIVE DIAGNOSIS: Facial rhytids
OPERATION: Midface lift with elevation of the malar fat pad and the elevation of the jowl using Endotine Coapt Suture
ANESTHESIA: General
OPERATIVE PROCEDURE
After the induction of general anesthesia in a supine position, the patient was prepped and draped in the usual sterile fashion. A total of 50 ml of ¼ % Lidocaine with Epinephrine were injected to the face area where the temporal incision was made. Subperiosteal dissection was carried out in the supraorbital area and lateral orbital rim and the inferior orbital rim area subperiosteally. This was done bilaterally using the Ramirez dissector. Next the coapt, endotine sutures were introduced bilaterally and this was pulled up and anchored to the temporalis fascia with 3.0 Vicryl. This successfully elevated the descended malar fat pad subperiosteally. Next, the retro tragal facelift incision was made from the sideburn area down to the earlobe area where the subcutaneous tissue was dissected and the SMAS flap was elevated there using 3.0 Vicryl to improve the pre-jowl region. This was done using 3.0 Vicryl. Dissection was done also in a similar way on the left side where the subcutaneous tissue as well as the SMAS flap was developed and these were anchored thus superiorly using 3.0 Vicryl. The skin was closed using 4.0 Vicryl and 5.0 Catgut. Good hemostasis was obtained. The skin was closed using 6.0 Prolene.
Schedule a Midface Lift Consultation With Dr. Byun
For more information about midface lift cost and the midface procedure, please request a consultation with Dr. Byun today.