[AETON TV] The Reason for Revision Facelift Surgery

When people hear “revision facelift surgery,”

it is easy to think only of cases where a major surgery was done before.

But if you have had even one procedure,

in a broad sense,

that should also be considered revision surgery.

That is because people who care a lot about their appearance

and have consistently maintained it

are highly likely to have already experienced various procedures.

If you have ever had a procedure such as a laser, an energy device, or

thread lifting,

you can already say that some change has occurred inside the face.

These procedures usually have a short-lived effect,

or the results are not what was hoped for, so dissatisfaction

is above 99%.

So in the end, people look for a more certain method

and come to consider facelift surgery.

Even if a well-known energy device such as Ulthera was used,

that also falls into the category of revision surgery.

If something was done to the face before,

and those traces need to be addressed,

it is called revision surgery

because it is a surgery being done again.

Revision surgery is more difficult,

and because there are more problems to solve,

the cost also goes up.

Therefore, it is important to accurately tell the doctor

what procedures were done before,

without hiding them.

Even a simple procedure may have affected

the internal facial tissues.

Procedures such as energy devices or thread lifting

may not be visible on the outside,

but they create changes inside the face.

People often speak positively about these procedures,

saying that they stimulate collagen production.

While collagen production is certainly a good thing,

another way to interpret it is that it means scar tissue,

called “fibrous tissue,” has formed.

Why is this scar tissue a problem?

During facelift surgery,

facial tissues need to be separated smoothly and then lifted.

But when this fibrous tissue, or scar tissue, forms,

the tissues become firmly stuck together and are not easy to separate.

If force is not applied during surgery,

separation becomes difficult, and the entire surgical approach changes completely.

What is even more serious is that

the color and shape of this scar tissue

are extremely difficult to distinguish from nerves.

Because the surgery must be performed very delicately,

the scar tissue makes the operation more complex

and inevitably takes longer.

In the end, because of these internal tissue changes,

the level of difficulty increases,

which is why the term revision surgery is used.

One major reason for revision surgery is that

the results of the previous surgery or procedure

were not satisfying.

If a simple surgical method alone could produce results

that everyone would be satisfied with,

there would have been no need for more complex, larger operations in the first place.

But reality is not that simple.

Rather, in order to achieve better results,

the surgical scope has continued to expand,

and surgery has evolved toward being performed on a larger scale.

Facelift surgery,

that is, a face-lift,

is not about pulling the skin.

The real core of the surgery is

pulling the degenerated muscle layer known as the

“SMAS” that surrounds the face.

When this muscle layer is lifted,

the soft tissues of the entire face become taut

and return to the position they had when younger.

Why not pull the skin?

Because if the skin is pulled,

tension is placed on the incision site,

which can enlarge the scar or cause other problems.

So the force on the skin is minimized,

and the force that lifts the face comes from the internal muscle layer.

However,

if the condition of this internal muscle layer,

that is, the SMAS layer, is poor, problems arise.

If energy devices were used too much

or thread lifting was done too frequently and excessively,

leaving the muscle layer thin or frayed,

even if the skin and muscle are separated cleanly,

the muscle itself has already become too weak

to properly bear the lifting force.

If the internal tissue damage is severe,

in other words, if many different procedures have been repeated too often,

the surgery itself becomes very difficult.

There are also many cases where people avoid major surgery and keep coping with smaller procedures,

until the tissues have weakened so much

that they can no longer hold up and they finally visit the clinic.

If the internal tissue damage is severe,

especially if the SMAS layer has become too weak to be lifted,

the surgical strategy must change.

Normally, the standard approach is to cleanly separate the skin and muscle layer

and then lift the muscle,

but if the tissues have become too weak,

that separation itself can become counterproductive.

In such cases, a method that does not separate the layers at all

may be used.

The surgical method must flexibly change

depending on the condition of the patient’s internal tissues.

When considering revision surgery,

it is not simply a matter of “what surgery should be done,” but rather

“what condition are the internal tissues of my face in right now?”

must be assessed first.

Revision facelift surgery is not simply having surgery one more time,

but a high-difficulty procedure that must address

all the traces left by previous procedures and surgeries,

that is, fibrous tissue and a weakened SMAS layer.

Only by comprehensively considering the surgical method, the individual’s constitution,

and the effects of prior procedures

can a satisfying result be achieved.

Thank you.