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Beverly Hills Lifestyle Lift
By Jason B. Diamond M.D., F.A.C.S. | October 6, 2008
As a facelift specialist in Beverly Hills I am often asked about what’s real and what’s a gimmick regarding facial plastic surgery or cosmetic procedures.
There are many doctors from all different specialties who are now dabbling in cosmetic procedures including dentists and gynecologists and anesthesiologists etc. Due to the large number of doctors competing for the same business we are seeing more advertisements for cosmetic procedures then we ever have. I have noticed that the more advertisements there are the more gimmicky and unrealistic they are becoming. Here I will give you a brief answer to the question, “WHAT IS THE LIFESTYLE LIFT”?
What is the Lifestyle Lift
This is a popular question that I am asked often. I have seen the same commercials that you have and they appear to be very promising advertisements. If I didn’t know better (from experience), I would think that this is a great new option simply based on good marketing. I would like to address this particular topic because there are more commercials for this procedure then any other at the current time.
The “lifestyle lift” is simply a very minimal facelift, no more, no less. It requires incisions around the ears and the same healing time of any other facelift. It is NOT a new procedure or a breakthrough procedure as it is advertised. In fact, this type of facelift is exactly the same facelift that was performed when facelifts first were developed literally decades ago before all the advancements in techniques and technology had been made. The facelift surgeons that I know , including myself, chose to perform more sophisticated facelifts that give batter and longer lasting results, but believe me we are all capable of performing the limited lifestyle lift.
The things that make it different from most facelifts are that the “lifestyle lift” is very limited in its ability to achieve any significant long term improvements (in my opinion and from my experience), that it is done under local anesthesia and that the procedure can be painful. Every good facelift surgeon has the ability and knowledge to perform a facelift under local anesthesia only we choose not to for several reasons.
The amount of improvement we can make with an awake patient is much less than if that patient were asleep. The reason is that with a patient under general anesthesia we can perform a more substantial tightening. When the procedure is done under local anesthesia, the patients typically move and flinch so much so that it can become difficult to be perfectly precise with incisions. I have seen many patients over the past several years that have come to my office seeking results that they were unable to obtain from the “lifestyle lift”.
Every single patient I have seen has told me that the “lifestyle lift” was extremely painful and not one of them has been happy with their results.
Choosing Your Facelift Surgeon
The biggest problem that I see with the “lifestyle lift” and other mass marketed procedures of its kind is that people are not choosing their facelift doctors. The patient is simply walking into the shop and signing up for a very serious procedure that has many serious consequences if not done right and agreeing to have a facelift form a doctor they know absolutely nothing about. Most people I know wouldn’t even do that for their haircuts, why would they do it for their facelift. It’s very important to know that 100 different doctors performing the same procedure will get 100 very different results especially when dealing with the face.
When deciding to have a surgical procedure of this nature, the single most important factor you should try to determine is your surgeon’s skill and talent level. So to decide to have a facelift without knowing your surgeon is a very risky proposition, in my opinion. I think that choosing your surgeon IS THE MOST IMPORTANT factor that will lead to a good facelift result.
In my opinion, to get the very best result you would pick a doctor who you have seen deliver great results instead of going to a franchise where you know nothing about the doctor. A perfect analogy is using a franchise hair salon for your hair cut where you don’t know the stylist in contrast to using a hairstylist with a great reputation that you know is highly skilled. This, of course, does not mean that you can’t ever get a good haircut at a franchise hair salon but it is certainly more risky than going to someone who has built their own reputation through known results. Do you really want to take that kind of risk with your face?
Finally, as many of you have seen on my televised patients, the best facial results require a customized approach for each individual based on their own unique anatomy. The lifestyle facelift is basically a cookbook approach to a facelift that offers very little if any room for customization.
I hope this information sheds some light on this topic and helps prevent people from being mislead about what they are seeing advertised on a daily basis.
For anyone considering a facial rejuvenation procedure it is important to understand your options so that you can make a decision that is right for you.
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