In the world of facial rejuvenation, surgery is still king. While non-surgical or minimally invasive products and procedures have rapidly become extremely popular and made facial rejuvenation more accessible to millions of people, there is no comparing the results of these treatments to those of surgical procedures. While the origins of cosmetic surgery reach far into history, it has only been since the 19th century that Western medicine has engaged in what we would consider modern facial cosmetic surgery.
Since that time, however, like most technologies, surgical facial rejuvenation has come light years from where it began. Today’s procedures are more effective, less invasive, and therefore, carry less recovery time. There has also been a fundamental shift in the approach to facial rejuvenation surgery. It used to be that people would wait until they had major issues with their faces before they would consider surgery, or indeed before a plastic surgeon would recommend it. By nature, this way of looking at things required a major overhaul of the face in order to correct issues that had progressively worsened over many years. Understandably, more drastic changes means more involved surgery, which also means more recovery time, higher risk of complications, and ultimately, less satisfactory results than could otherwise be achieved. In today’s world of surgical facial rejuvenation, addressing problems while they are still relatively small is the preferred approach. “A stitch in time saves nine,” is a saying that can be taken quite literally in the field of aesthetic surgery today. By undergoing smaller corrective procedures, earlier on in the aging process, superior results can be achieved with less invasive surgeries, less downtime and less expense to the patient.
The three most popular surgical facial rejuvenation surgeries are blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery to remove those pesky bags or heavy eyelids), rhytidectomy (face-lift to tightens the skin), and browplasty (forehead lift to eliminate that permanently furrowed brow).