Today's Facelifts

Hi Dr. Rohrich
I have heard about different kinds of face-lift. I read about SMAS, Deep Plane and FAME. I am still confused because there are too many medical expressions used to explain these three types. I visited ASPS and ASAPS and found your e-mail address. I thought by asking the most prominent surgeon I can get the best answer.

Can you please in simple words, tell me about the differences of these three types. And could you please let me know which one you use?
Thank you,

Laura



Dear Laura,

There are many thing happening in how we perform facelift surgery today- the entire way we look at each patients face which is so unique with each persons face having some asymmetries- therefore the facelift is now customized to the individuals face and not the other way ,which has been the way it has been done for decades- thus creating this wind-swept "hollywood" appearance which is very unattacrtive and unnatural .

The facelift I perform is based on the preop analysis of the persons face and use both the superficial - skin layer for redraping only and the deep layer- the SMAS layer for RESHAPING the fat compartments of the face along with REFILLING THESE FAT COMPARTMENTS with the persons own fat -THIS IS A NEW CONCEPT WHICH ALLOWS FOR A NATURAL UNOPERATED LOOK AND OFFERS THE BEST WAY TO OBTAIN A YOUTHFUL APPEARANCE WITH OPTIMAL LONGEVITY . Most real facelifts have a life span of 7-10 years.

The answer to your question about the different types of facelifts is simple -
there is a Skin only lift which has a brief longevity and can cause facial distortion when used alone the SMAS lifts is optimal when used as described above as it is a carrier of the deep and superficial fat compartments DEEP plane lifts add another level of complexity, prolonged post op swelling and recovery and increased risk of facial nerve damage while the results are no better than the SMAS- type lifts FAME is a version of the SMAS lift
I hope this helps

Good luck to you

Sincerely,

Dr Rohrich