Why Customized Facelift Surgery May Be Needed for Sagging Skin After Facial Contouring Surgery

When people hear terms such as facelift or mini-facelift, many think of anti-aging surgery performed due to aging after the age of 40 or 50.

However, those who need lifting surgery are not necessarily limited to middle-aged and older adults.

Even in their 20s or 30s, some people may need lifting surgery if sagging skin develops.

There are two main cases.

The first is when the skin becomes severely loose after rapid weight loss.

The second is cheek and skin sagging that develops after facial contouring surgery.

The case introduced today is the second type: a woman in her 20s who underwent customized lifting surgery due to skin sagging that developed after facial contouring surgery.

• Why does skin sagging occur after facial contouring surgery? -

Facial contouring procedures, such as cheekbone reduction, square jaw surgery, and chin surgery,

are surgeries that reduce the facial skeleton to make the face smaller and more slender.

However, when the skeletal structure is reduced, the skin and soft tissue that covered it can become relatively loose.

Cheek sagging after facial contouring surgery. Reasons for sagging tissue after facial contouring surgery. Skin sagging after facial contouring surgery.

When the skin has sufficient elasticity, it adapts to some extent,

but depending on the individual's skin characteristics and the extent of the surgery, cheek sagging or sagging around the mouth may occur.

Because these changes have a different cause from ordinary aging, the approach should also be different.

• How is it different from ordinary anti-aging sagging? -

Skin sagging that appears in people in their 40s to 60s is characterized by the entire face gradually descending under the influence of gravity as it ages.

In contrast, skin sagging after facial contouring surgery often affects only specific areas, depending on the area that was operated on.

For example, cheek sagging in the midface may become prominent after cheekbone reduction,

while the skin around the jawline may appear loose after square jaw surgery.

After chin reduction, sagging skin under the chin may also become more noticeable.

In other words, the biggest difference is that this is not aging of the entire face,

but structural sagging caused by remaining soft tissue following skeletal changes.

• Why was it not resolved despite undergoing various procedures? -

This patient had also undergone various procedures and surgeries to improve the sagging.

• Facial liposuction

• Buccal fat pad lipectomy

• Thread lifting

• Various energy-based device (EBD) lifting procedures using radiofrequency and ultrasound

However, she said that she had not achieved an improvement that was satisfactory to her.

Cheek sagging after facial contouring surgery. Thread lifting removal. Removal of lifting threads. Removal of facial foreign substances.

The reason was that the cause of the skin sagging was not excess fat or aging,

but the facial structure changed by facial contouring surgery and the remaining soft tissue.

In such cases, rather than removing fat or temporarily pulling only the skin,

an approach is needed to restore the sagging tissue to its anatomically correct position.

The pattern of skin sagging after facial contouring surgery differs from patient to patient.

Some people have severe cheek sagging, some experience loss of definition along the jawline, and others have sagging only around the mouth.

Therefore, it is not advisable to apply the same lifting surgery to every patient.

At our hospital, after accurately analyzing the location and severity of the sagging,

• Deep plane mini-facelift

• Facelift (deep plane or dual plane facelift)

• Pelican procedure (submental platysmaplasty)

are appropriately selected or combined to perform the customized lifting surgery best suited to each patient.

The main concerns in this case were cheek sagging and skin sagging around the mouth after facial contouring surgery.

Before and after deep plane mini-facelift. Before and after mini-facelift. Real model with consent for publication.

Before and after deep plane mini-facelift. Before and after Pelican procedure. Before and after double-chin surgery. Double-chin muscle tightening. Real model with consent for publication.

Before and after deep plane mini-facelift. Before and after Pelican procedure. Before and after double-chin surgery. Double-chin muscle tightening. Real model with consent for publication.

Because the entire face had not aged and sagging in specific areas had become prominent after facial contouring surgery,

a deep plane mini-facelift and Pelican procedure were performed together.

By appropriately combining the two procedures, the focus was on anatomically restoring the sagging SMAS layer and soft tissue,

and creating natural facial and jawline contours.

• The recovery process is also an important factor in choosing a procedure. -

The aspects that concern people considering lifting surgery the most are swelling and bruising.

However, when only the necessary areas are precisely dissected in younger patients,

and the surgery is performed in a way that minimizes tissue damage, recovery is relatively quick.

Of course, we also operate programs to support postoperative recovery, including

swelling injections (IV recovery therapy), LED swelling care (LED light therapy),

and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

In this case as well, even on postoperative day 2, when swelling is generally at its greatest, severe swelling or bruising was barely observed.

In addition, at suture removal on postoperative day 10,

recovery was natural enough to allow normal daily activities, as shown in the photograph.

Of course, recovery speed varies from person to person,

but thorough hemostasis during surgery and minimizing excessive tissue damage play important roles in faster recovery.

Skin sagging that occurs after facial contouring surgery is not simply a result of aging.

Therefore, rather than relying on ordinary lifting procedures or a uniform lifting surgery, it is important to accurately analyze the cause of the sagging

and take a customized approach by selecting the necessary surgery.

Mini-facelift review. Deep plane mini-facelift review. Cheek sagging after facial contouring surgery. Sagging tissue after facial contouring surgery. Real model with consent for publication.

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