When we
talk about a facelift we talk about skin removal which is surgery. Too many
treatments have been named non-surgical facelift. Unfortunately none of these
provide a true lift. All these treatments are capable of doing is skin firming
or skin shrinking. That is not to discredit these treatments. In fact majority
of our treatments are geared towards improving the skin quality and skin
health.
The
closest we get to a non-surgical facelift is skin suspension. Various threads have been used
for this procedure but these are also considered surgical as a skin incision is
required to anchor these sutures in the area of the temple. Recently a
non-anchoring version has become available which are silhouette soft sutures.
These are capable of lifting the skin without cutting. The downside- results
are not permanent. These are a good option if you want to try a reversible
facelift without the knife. You can get this repeated later or you can move up
the next step which is silhouette lift or even higher up the surgical ladder
with skin removal and tightening of the underlying layer.
But I don't like the idea of a thread in my face
and I also don't want the knife. Is there nothing else you can offer me?
The
answer is yes I can. I can use a dual-plane laser facelift. How is this done? We use a
numbing solution along the sides of face and neck. Then we introduce a hair
thin laser fibre under your skin and activate the laser. The laser energy heats
and shrinks the deeper layers of the skin. Then we use a co2 laser on the skin
from outside to tighten the top layers of your skin further.
Is there an advantage to these treatments if you
are recommending them, I hear you ask?
The
answer is yes. A facelift only removes the excess skin. It does nothing to the
remaining skin. Skin treatments such as lasers, LED, Radiofrequency, peels and
even microdermabrasion help improve the skin quality. Patients often ask me- I
only want one procedure doc. I don't have the time to do other things for my
skin. Unfortunately there are no shortcuts in life. If you want to maintain
skin health you have to invest in it. Skin is the largest organ of the human
body and needs looking after. You can't just have one facelift and forget about
it. Skin health is a life-long process.
Contact us by phone 0800 0430737 or via the website http://www.coltishallclinic.co.uk