The Mini-Lift

We call the medium facelift "The Minilift" as it is more conservative than many previous facelift techniques. As facelift surgery has evolved over the last century, many changes have been made. It has been shown that medium or moderate facelifting techniques can be as effective and long lasting as the older aggressive techniques. The recovery is also shorter with the minilift techniques. By combining contemporary techniques such as Submentoplasty, SMASectomy and small incisions, smaller lifts have replaced the extremely aggressive techniques.

The ideal candidates for the mini-lift are patients with moderate tosigns of facial aging.

The "minilift" is the most common type of facelift as it addresses common lower facial aging changes in 45-60 year old's which are the most popular ages for facelift procedures.  The "minilift" is the medium type of lift and addresses more aging thatn the weekend facelift but is not as aggressive as the comprehensive (large) facelift.  The patient shown on the above left does not exhibit enough aging for the "minilift".  The patient in the center picture is an excellent candidate and the patient on the far right above needs a larger facelift.

The mini-lift includes incisions in front of and behind the ears. By using this combination of incisions, the excess neck skin can be predictably and maximally tightened. This degree of tightening is not possible with the very conservative facelifts. Also, patients who have significant neck aging and opt for minimally invasive procedures will likely be disappointed because the small facelift techniques cannot address the neck aging to the same extent as the more comprehensive facelifts. The buyer must beware and not forget this as many surgeons market a "one size fits all" facelift. There is simply no such thing. Every patient is different. Performing a large procedure on a patient who needs a small one is unnecessary. Performing a small facelift on a patient who needs a larger one will lead to an unhappy patient.

The minilift incision is about 90% hidden.  Most of the incision is hidden in the natural hairline and the dotted lines are hidden inside of and behind the ear.  The picture on the right side shows a typical minilift incision several months after surgery. More examples of incision scars can be seen on the incision and scars page.

The recovery for a mini-lift ranges between one and two weeks. Since all patients swell and bruise to a different degree the actual recovery is variable. Most patients are out of the house at a week with a little cover up such as sunglasses, turtle neck shirt and makeup. Some are back to work in a week, but as a rule the recovery is closer to two weeks for most patients. Some patients elect to have surgery on a Thursday or Friday. This way, they miss a weekend, a five day work week and another weekend. This provides a ten day recovery while only missing a five day work week and is adequate for many patients.

The patient shown underwent "minilift" (medium facelift) to correct jowl and neck aging.  The lift also produced inprovements in her jaw border, smile lines and cheeks.

The picture gallery (floating Mona Lisa Icon) on the right  side of the page shows  hundreds of typical results for patients with the mini-lift. Some of these patients also had additional cosmetic procedures such as brow lift, eyelid tuck and laser skin resurfacing.

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