Differences Between Mini and Regular Facelifts

Audio Transcript:

Dr. Undavia:

Hey guys, it’s Dr. Samir Undavia from NJENT in Facial Plastic Surgery. And we are getting a lot of questions in the office about what a mini facelift is or what the difference of a mini facelift and a regular facelift is and which one the patient should get. So I just wanted to clarify what a mini facelift is and what are the indications for it. So first, a mini facelift is a facelift.

For most patients, it’s done in the office as opposed to the operating room with anesthesia. A mini facelift typically takes a shorter amount of time than a full traditional facelift. Some patients have heard of the term S-lift and essentially it’s the same thing. An S-lift is short for a short scar lift. And typically the S comes from the fact that the S goes around the ear like that. So it looks like a little bit of an S around the ear. But when it comes to deciding between a full traditional facelift and a mini facelift or an S lift, there are four things that we’d kind of take into account. One is the amount of downtime that’s needed or that you have available. Two is the scars that are going to be involved. Three is what areas need to be addressed for the facelift and four is your age. So let’s go over the scars that involve for traditional facelift. So traditional facelift has the scars that are around the ear. So they go here behind the earlobe around the ear and they might stop here for a mini facelift but for the traditional facelift they go around the ear and into the back. There’s also one incision right here for traditional facelift. For a mini facelift what you have is just the ones around the ear and they typically stop near the earlobe or a little bit behind the earlobe. So for a mini facelift, you have less scars that are less visible.

Now, this allows access to less areas of the face, but in the mini facelift, that’s what’s needed. Now, when you think about the patient population of who’s going to get a mini facelift versus a regular facelift, the difference really is that patients who end up getting a mini facelift need less areas addressed. And most of the areas that we address for a mini facelift are going to be right here in this part jawline and then the cheeks. This area not really addressed well with a mini facelift and that’s because you kind of need to be asleep for this part. It’s a lot more surgery. A lot of times there’s liposuction involved and that’s not something that’s fun to do while the patient is awake, even with like a Xanax or Valium and local anesthesia. But a mini facelift for the most part is done on patients who have more of this area and less of this as a problem. Now I have done many facelifts on patients that have this as a problem, but they didn’t care about that. They just cared about their jawline. And so we did many facelifts and they were happy. They still had this, but that part didn’t bother them. But if you want to address the neck part, traditional facelift is the best thing to do for that. A mini facelift is great for the cheeks and the jawline. Now, when it comes to downtime, a traditional facelift definitely is a much bigger surgery has more risks, has more of a downtime. A mini facelift, we typically have the incisions with sutures in place for about a week. We take out those sutures at a week. During that first week, we have you wear a face wrap that you wear 24 seven. So during the day and night for a week. And that just keeps the skin stuck to the new area that we put it on. After that first week, we have you wear the wrap just at night.

Now, most people get back to their work around two weeks for a mini facelift, but for a traditional facelift, it’s more like three-ish weeks, and there’s just a lot more swelling on the cheeks for a traditional facelift. But a mini facelift is a little bit faster, but definitely you’re ready for a dinner party by one month, and you’re ready for a wedding by three months. That’s with traditional and mini facelift, but you’re just, you’re there faster for mini facelifts. When it comes to the age that patients need, that patients usually get the mini facelift versus the traditional facelift. Because we’re not addressing the neck as much with a mini facelift, our patients are typically younger. Now, I’ve done many facelifts on patients as early as in their 30s or as late in their 70s. But in general, the trend is that a mini facelift is done on younger patients and a traditional facelift is done on older patients. And the main reason is that most people care about this area and the only real way to address that is with a traditional facelift. The risks are also less with a mini facelift. The mini facelift has in general less worrisome risks of a hematoma, less risks of a hematoma down here with extra skin and less risk of any injury to the skin viability or like the robustness of the blood supply. And that’s because we’re elevating a shorter segment of skin to get the lift we need.

Now with a mini facelift, you can also do a deep plane. You can do a SMAS placation. All the different variants that you can have for traditional facelift, you can also have for a mini facelift. But the biggest thing in my mind in deciding which facelift to do is really just about the age and the needs of the patient. If we’re not addressing the neck so much and it’s just a smaller jowl that’s here, I think a mini facelift is something that’s very doable and we’ve done deep plane mini facelifts in the office. We’ve done deep plane upper facelifts in the office. If someone wants to be asleep for it, that’s fine. We can do it while they’re asleep as well. But I hope that answers your questions about mini facelift. If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us on Instagram or by email. We’ll talk to you soon. Bye.

For a comprehensive facial rejuvenation, patients may also consider other cosmetic procedures like rhinoplasty to enhance the nose’s appearance.