Neck – cheek & eyebrow lift in the temporal area

Dr. Albrecht published in the last issue of Aesthetic Surgery Journal, the magazine of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

Mrs. V.B. came to my surgery nine months ago following the recommendations of a friend of hers and her hair stylist. She needed a complete face lift including a retouch of her upper and lower eyelids. My state-of-the-art facial rejuvenation technique includes lifting, injections and peeling.

The complete treatment takes 9 hours and it is performed in two days. It is an expensive procedure. Viviane told me that she was willing to spend half the quoted sum so I proposed a simpler strategy that yields very good results.

• The first step of the rejuvenation technique con-sists in lightening to the maximum extent possible the weight of the skin of the jaw line and the neck, allowing it to attach itself back to the subcutaneous muscle.

Through cheek and jaw line liposuction, in combination with the surgical removal of the fat deposited behind the subcutaneous muscle (platisma) of the neck, the weight of the neck skin is eliminated and it adheres back to the jaw.

My face lift theory is based on the ageing of the skin, in other words, the loss of elasticity. What happens when elastic gets old? It fails to go back to its initial position when stretched and it does not bear even the minimum weight. What happens if it is stretched too far? It breaks or does not allow further movement.

The same thing happens with the skin, depending on the elasticity loss degree, which may vary significantly among people of the same age. When it loses elasticity, it fails to bear the weight of the subcutaneous fat and it drops due to the effect of gravity. However, under no circumstances is gravity responsible for the loosening of the skin of the face. If this skin is tightened trough a face lift, the facial expressions will be limited, resulting in a pulled, unnatural look.

In order to avoid this undesired effect, I always focus on the removal of fat from the skin. By removing all this fat (this is a fine surgery procedure that takes from 2 to 4 hours), the skin can go back to its original location and attach to the muscle thanks to the scar-like tissue (fibrosis) resulting from the liposuction. Curiously enough, even thin people have fat in their necks.

This is precisely what I did in the case of Viviane. Through the 3 to 4 cm incision hidden in the first wrinkle under the chin, the neck was “cleaned”. The results are always very good and amazing, taking into consideration that no skin is cut.

• The second step consists in a temporal lift (in the temple area) through a small 3 cm long incision made 2.5 cm from the hair line, slightly to the back and above the eyebrow tail. After removing skin from the lower and upper eyelids, the temporal lift allows to slightly augment the size of the eyes and to elevate the brow naturally (unlike the frontal lift, where the entire brows are lifted, resulting in a permanent look of surprise or fear). Here again there is no skin cut, it is only pulled backwards with internal sutures of the skin to the muscle.

• The third step was an injection of the patient’s own fat in the cheeks and the area around the eyes, particularly in the upper eyelid, to achieve the “full but not loose” effect typical of the youth.

Finally, it can be stated that Mrs. V.B. has achieved a significant and natural rejuvenation with only two small incisions of 3 cm each, under local anesthesia and sedation. You can learn more about this case in her interview in Transform Magazine n° 5.

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Editorial: Dr. Pier Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Albrecht,

Dr. Pier Jean Albrecht, Dr. Pierre F. Albrecht, Dr. Pierre Frank Albrecht,

Dr. P. Frank Albrecht, Dr. Pierjean Frank Albrecht, Marbella Clinic