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Should I Have A Facelift or Facial Implants?

While facial implants and facelifts can both restore more youthful-looking features, they address different concerns and will give you different results. Before deciding, consider what results you want and consult with your Specialty Aesthetic Surgery surgeon.

What’s the Difference Between A Facelift and Facial Implants?

Both of these procedures alter the shape and contour of your face to reverse some of the effects of aging on the facial skin and structure. Similarities end here, though, because both correct different types of issues

Facelift

A facelift may focus on one area, such as the mid-face, or it may address the entire face. Incisions usually hide behind the ears or in the hairline to prevent visible scars. During a facelift, the surgeon lifts and arranges the skin and underlying tissues to return them to their younger, more lifted position. 

While a facelift may change the volume of some areas of your face, the procedure does not always correct the patient’s concerns about lost volume in some areas of the face. In addition, some patients desire more sculpted facial contours. 

Facial Implants

Your surgeon can place implants in your cheeks, jaw, or chin to sharpen and enhance contours and replace volume lost to age. These implants give patients the fuller cheeks or more sculpted jaw they seek. These silicone implants have proven safe and reliable, and are unlikely to require replacement

Facial implants do not address sagging or loose skin the way a facelift can. While adding volume may lift the skin somewhat and decrease the look of lines and wrinkles around the implant, this procedure cannot tighten or lift the skin and cannot reduce lines and wrinkles like a facelift. 

What Are These Procedures Like?

Facelifts can vary in what areas of the face they address, but surgery can last three to five hours, usually under general anesthesia. Facial implants will also normally happen under general anesthesia and last about an hour or two

In both procedures, your surgeon will minimize any visible scarring. Facelift scars can hide behind the ears or in the hairline, and the surgeon will place implants through areas such as inside the mouth where the scars will be invisible. 

Recovery from a facelift takes several weeks, while recovery from facial implants usually takes a week or less, depending on the implant. Facelift surgery requires a more invasive process, resulting in more severe bruising and a longer healing time. 

Should I Get a Facelift or Facial Implants?

Facial implants may meet your needs if you want more volume and shape in your cheeks, chin, or jawline. If you want to lift loose skin and smooth away lines and wrinkles, you may get better results from a facelift. 

Am I a Good Candidate for a Facelift or Facial Implants?

To undergo one of these procedures, you should be in overall good health, a nonsmoker, and have realistic expectations about what the surgery will do for you. 

Take the Next Step – Request a Consultation

Want to learn more about rhinoplasty? Schedule your consultation or by calling Specialty Aesthetic Surgery at (212) 737-8700. We look forward to working with you!

Specialty Aesthetic Surgery serves the greater NYC metro area.

About our Surgeons

Bruce Moskowitz is an experienced and board-certified oculoplastic surgeon. His practice encompasses all areas of oculoplastic cosmetic and reconstructive surgery. He has a well-known reputation for revision surgery, and a large portion of his practice comes from other colleagues to revise sub-optimal outcomes.

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