Facelift Salt Lake City | Park City, Utah

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.