Dr. Saltz is board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. He was Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery and Director of the Summit Plastic Surgery Center at the University of Utah prior to opening his practice. He has been president of both the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (ISAPS) and the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS). He has published and presented over 500 national and international papers on various aspects of reconstructive and plastic surgery. He has written seven books and 39 book chapters on plastic surgery.

Those are the kind of credentials you can trust with a procedure as complicated as a facelift. This isn’t simply a case of lifting skin and stretching it. You’ve seen plenty of botched cases of that in the celebrity world. This is a complex procedure that demands extensive knowledge of facial anatomy and structure. Dr. Saltz has nearly 30 years of practicing and teaching surgery and will deliver the results you seek.

Many people are good candidates for a Facelift. The signs of aging and sun damage — wrinkles, creases, and sagging skin — are especially evident on the face. Especially living in the dry, high altitude of Salt Lake City or Park City, Utah, our faces take a beating from the sun, the hot and cold temperatures, and the low humidity. And that’s not even addressing lifestyle issues such as stress that also age our skin.

The changes made by Dr. Saltz are permanent. The repositioning of the SMAS system and tissue will remain in place the rest of your life. They will continue to improve as the swelling decreases. It will take a few months to see your full results, as swelling can come and go especially later in the day. It’s important to remember that these changes are for the duration. Muscles that are repositioned are not going to shift. Excess skin that has been removed is gone.

That said, the aging process will continue, but it will advance from a younger starting point. Still, many patients opt to have a more limited procedure, a mini facelift, in 5-10 years to keep up with the natural aging process.

Dr. Saltz uses his extensive expertise with this surgery to effectively hide your incisions. He uses the natural chin crease and hides the ear incisions in the hairline as much as possible. These scars will heal well naturally and will be quite inconspicuous in a matter of months.

Facelifts involve a good deal of tissue lifting and repositioning. This creates tissue trauma, bruising, and swelling, making a facelift recovery more involved than many other aesthetic procedures. It’s tempting for patients to want to get their blood moving again and exercise to help with their recovery, but some patience here will go a long way. Exercising too soon after this surgery can lead to complications and a longer recovery.

For the first few days, Dr. Saltz encourages his patients to take short light walks, as this helps with circulation. The key is to not raise your heart rate or blood pressure — this can cause blood vessels on your face to bleed.

You can increase activity levels over the remainder of your first month after surgery, but heavy lifting, weight training, and strenuous exercise needs to be avoided. You need to keep your facial blood pressure down.

Most patients can return to work by the third week after surgery, but you’ll probably need to use some camouflage cosmetics. After one month, you can add light cardio exercise, such as slowly pedaling a stationary bike. At six weeks you can return to all exercise, although this can vary by the patient.

A facelift with Dr. Saltz is major surgery. That means it includes the risks associated with surgery: bleeding, infection, hematoma, and the like. Beyond those general risks of surgery, facelifts can create a temporary loss of muscle function and sensation. The incision scars can thicken and widen, especially if recovery procedures are not followed. There can be hair loss at the incision sites within the hairline. If you follow Dr. Saltz’ recovery instructions, these complications are rare. Facelifts are a very satisfying procedure for the vast majority of patients.

You’ve heard of “liquid facelifts” accomplishing the same rejuvenation as surgical facelifts, but this isn’t accurate. Yes, dermal fillers will return volume to sunken cheeks and to areas around the mouth. But, as you would assume, they can’t change the underlying sagging of the skin and musculature. Dermal fillers can improve volume deficits for up to one year. Surgical facelifts provide permanent change.