Can I Get A Facelift To Make My Face Thinner and More Defined?

Q: Dr. Eppley, Can I get facelift and lipectomy and necklift/lipo? Goal is tighter and thinner look. I have loose tissue cheek area after having buccal removal annd malar implants put in back in 2022. 

A: As a general rule you can’t lift your way into improved facial definition, at least not in the cheek area due to the lack of good incision locations to do so. Simulating a cheeklift with your fingers over the cheeks is not representative of the effects of what a lift can do. Rather it has to be done back where the lift is actually performed in front of the ear and up in the temple areas.

I would be very cautious about any form of a lift as I have seen many a young person who had a ‘facelift’ and now has hypertrophic scars and a minimal result. The tissues of a young person should not be confused with an older person who has lost elasticity and scars better with a more sustained lifting effect. Liposuction and further defatting efforts are fine and will produce a modest improvement but it is not achievable to expect any form of surgery to do much more with your naturally thicker soft tissues.

You don’t want to attempt any soft tissue refinement/sculpting until all the implants are successfully implanted as swelling will work against these efforts.

Dr. Barry Eppley

World-Renowned Plastic Surgeon