As you grow older, your face starts to lose its smoothness, suppleness, and radiance. This happens because the dermal structure becomes weak and collagen production slows down with age. As a result, the natural fat pads lose volume, you begin to notice fine lines and wrinkles, and your skin begins to sag in the face and neck. These visible signs of aging leave you looking tired, worn out, and prematurely old. Eventually, these changes can affect your confidence and quality of life.
A traditional surgical facelift is the best known method of correcting and reversing age-related facial changes. However, if you want to eliminate wrinkles, tighten and smoothen skin, and restore volume, surgery is not your only choice. There are non-surgical treatments for facial rejuvenation that can address your concerns without going under the knife.
If you are considering facial cosmetic surgery, keep reading to learn more about your options for a non-surgical facelift, eye lift, brow lift, or neck lift. Depending on your specific concerns, board certified dermatologists, cosmetic surgeons, and plastic surgeons can help you choose a nonsurgical, minimally invasive procedure that can turn back the clock for you.
What is a minimally invasive facelift?
Over the past couple of decades, surgical facelift techniques have expanded beyond the traditional facelift surgery. There is now a broad range of non-invasive and minimally-invasive options available for cosmetic enhancement.
Unlike traditional facelift surgery, these techniques do not require general anesthesia, large incisions, overnight hospitalization, or prolonged recovery. Patients can have the treatments done at a doctor’s office on an outpatient basis. A board-certified plastic surgeon or cosmetic surgeon can perform a minimally invasive facelift with very little discomfort, minimal downtime, and still noticeable anti-aging results.
How can I lift my face without a surgical procedure?
Plastic surgeons use a combination of nonsurgical treatments to rejuvenate and refresh your appearance and give you younger, healthier looking skin. What’s more, the plastic surgery tools and technology available today allow the facial rejuvenation to be personalized to your facial anatomy. This means the treatments can be customized to address your specific concerns.
Nonsurgical procedures can help soften fine lines, fill wrinkles, lift sagging skin, elevate sunken features, and restore volume without the side effects and recovery process associated with cosmetic surgery.
What is the best alternative to a facelift?
A wide range of noninvasive techniques is available to address all types of skin concerns, from fine lines to deep creases, sagging skin, lax skin, sunken cheeks, thinning lips, excess fat, acne scarring, large pores, and volume loss in the face.
There is no single best alternative to a facelift. If you are interested in a nonsurgical facelift, your plastic surgeon can provide medical advice on how to restore a more youthful appearance. Nonsurgical procedures can be tailored to meet your unique needs.
Some of the common alternatives to a facelift include Botox injections to treat frown lines and wrinkles, chemical peels to improve texture and address pigment issues, dermal fillers to reduce wrinkles and restore facial volume, ultherapy to tighten the skin, microneedling to smoothen and firm the skin, microdermabrasion to improve skin tone and texture, and laser treatments such as laser skin resurfacing to improve the texture and smoothness of skin, reverse sun damage, and treat acne scarring.
Excited to see how you can refresh your looks with a nonsurgical facelift? Continue reading to learn more about some of the treatment options in more detail.
What are the best non surgical face lifts?
Thread Lift: A Nonsurgical Facelift for Sagging Skin
Sagging skin is one of the most bothersome aspects of aging for many men and women. It occurs because collagen production slows down with age and the skin loses the structural support that is provided by this essential protein. This leads to a diminishment in the skin’s smoothness and softness. Combined with fat loss and volume loss, it causes the facial tissues to migrate down, giving the face a sunken, haggard appearance.
A thread facelift of feather facelift (also sometimes called a silhouette lift) can address these common concerns. It is a minimally invasive procedure that can lift facial muscles and redefine the shape of your face. The treatment involves placing FDA-cleared, medical-grade threads under the skin surface to lift sagging facial tissues. These threads are made of polylactic acid and polyglycolic acid, which are biocompatible and dissolvable materials that are completely safe.
A thread lift can make your cheekbones more prominent and restore a more youthful shape and definition to your face. The placement of the threads under the skin also stimulates collagen production, giving you a naturally radiant, smoother, more youthful appearance for up to 18 months. A board certified plastic surgeon can place the threads strategically to give you balanced, natural-looking results.
So, a thread lift is a facelift alternative that is performed in the office as an outpatient procedure. It is done under local anesthesia. There are no incisions (cuts), minimal side effects, and very little downtime. A thread facelift is, therefore, a good choice if you want to avoid facelift scars and the recovery time associated with facelift surgery.
Dermal Fillers: Non Surgical Facelifts for Volume Restoration
Dermal fillers are smooth, gel-like substances that are injected under the skin to fill deep creases and restore volume in the cheeks, lips, temples, and under the eyes. Treatment with injectable facial fillers can plump up sunken areas, eliminate dark shadows in the under-eye area, and fill up nasolabial folds and marionette lines for a smoother, wrinkle-free, more radiant look. Dermal fillers are made of different materials, the most common one being hyaluronic Acid (HA), a moisture-rich substance that is naturally found in the body and abundantly in the skin.
Treatment with dermal fillers is an outpatient procedure with no downtime and minimal side effects. The smoothing and plumping effects of facial fillers can last for 6-12 months.
Botox Injections: Nonsurgical Facelift for Wrinkle Reduction
Botox is one of the most popular minimally invasive procedures the world over. The treatment involves injecting a chemical called botulinum toxin in the facial muscles to temporarily relax them. This reduces the appearance of dynamic wrinkles that are formed from repeated contraction of these muscles.
Cosmetic surgeons offer Botox for frown lines, crow’s feet near the eyes, and forehead creases. Botox injections are performed in a plastic surgery office on an outpatient basis. The results last for 3-4 months, at which time the injections will need to be repeated if you want to maintain the results.
Fat Injections: Nonsurgical Treatments for Volume Loss
Autologous fat injections are minimally invasive procedures in which fatty tissue is extracted through liposuction from one part of the body, processed, and reinjected into the face to restore lost facial volume. The procedure uses your own living fat cells, so they integrate well with your facial tissues, restoring more youthful facial contours for many years.
Stem Cell Facelifts: Regenerative Medicine to the Rescue
Stem cells are progenitor cells in the body that can mature into various types of cells. Stem cells can be used to perform a non-surgical facelift because they give rise to healthy new skin cells. In this procedure, adipose tissue (fat) which contains stem cells is taken from the thighs or abdomen. The fat is processed in the lab and injected into the underlying tissue of the face to fill lost volume.
This type of nonsurgical facelift does not involve any cuts or scarring. It does not use any foreign materials, rather it uses your own fatty tissue, so there is no risk of an allergic reaction. A stem cell facelift can help improve a sunken or hollowed out appearance and improve skin quality naturally.
Needleless Nonsurgical Facelifts
Squeamish about needles? Most patients are! Worry not. There are several types of nonsurgical facelifts that can give you smoother skin and a glowing complexion without needles. Here’s a quick overview of a few of them.
Ultherapy: An Ultrasound-Based Option for Non Surgical Facelifts
Ultherapy is an FDA-approved noninvasive treatment that uses focused ultrasound energy to generate a thermal effect in the skin. The heat triggers the body’s natural healing response and stimulates new collagen formation in the skin. The procedure can lift sagging facial tissues, better define facial structure, tighten the skin, and rejuvenate your complexion with a noticeable improvement in skin tone and texture.
Ultherapy is a type of nonsurgical facelift that is used to correct moderate skin laxity. It can give you a smoother, firmer skin texture. Ultherapy is a good choice if you have loose skin in the neck and chin (commonly called a turkey neck). It is also effective in correcting sagging eyelids and lifting eyebrows that have migrated downwards. The treatment is associated with minimal side effects and no downtime.
Chemical Peels: Skin Rejuvenation without Needles
Chemical peels are a noninvasive technique of smoothing skin, shrinking pores, fading acne scars, and improving overall skin quality. The treatment involves painting the skin with an acid such as alpha-hydroxy acid (AHA) or glycolic acid to remove the top layer of damaged skin cells and reveal healthy skin underneath. It is a quick treatment performed in a doctor’s office. Light chemical peels do not require much downtime at all. Medium and deep peels require some recovery.
Dermabrasion and Microdermabrasion: Skin Resurfacing and Exfoliation
Dermabrasion and microdermabrasion are a type of nonsurgical facelift in which a plastic surgeon resurfaces and exfoliates the skin mechanically with a roller (you can think of it as “sanding” the skin). This helps to get rid of damaged tissue in the upper layers of skin, thus reducing wrinkles, fine lines, and hyperpigmentation, to reveal fresher, healthier skin.
Mini-Facelift: A Less Invasive Alternative to a Standard Facelift
A traditional facelift surgery can address moderate to advanced signs of aging in the face and neck. However, while facelift results from a traditional surgery are usually the most dramatic, it is an extensive surgery that requires more recovery time. Plus, it costs more.
Patients with a milder degree of excess skin, sagging skin, and jowling are often good candidates for a procedure called a mini-facelift or short-scar facelift. It is a less invasive alternative in which the cosmetic surgeon tightens facial tissues through smaller incisions. These incisions are usually placed along the hairline and/or in the natural creases near the ears, so they are well-concealed.
A mini-facelift can lift a sagging facial structure, correct jowling, better define the jawline, and give you a less tired, rejuvenated appearance.
In contrast to a traditional facelift surgery which is usually done under general anesthesia, a mini-facelift can be performed under local anesthesia with sedation. Recovery is shorter but the facelift results may not last as long.
Pros and Cons of a Nonsurgical Facelift
There are several advantages to forgoing a traditional facelift surgery and going the nonsurgical facelift route. A nonsurgical facelift is fast – you can be in and out of the doctor’s office quickly, often in about an hour. The treatment doesn’t require general anesthesia. There is little discomfort and minimal side effects. Recovery is quick with minimal downtime. Nonsurgical facelifts are also more affordable. And because the results are typically temporary, many patients choose a nonsurgical facelift to try out cosmetic treatments and see what works for them.
The biggest disadvantage of a nonsurgical facelift is that the results are moderate and far less dramatic than traditional facelift surgery. Also, the treatments often need to be repeated to maintain optimal results, so costs can add up over time.
Until someone finds an elixir for eternal youth, the aging process is a part of life. But by working with a board-certified plastic surgeon, you can choose from a range of cosmetic procedures to turn back the clock and look your best. What’s more, many of the treatments can be customized for your skin’s evolving needs as you age. And eventually, if a nonsurgical facelift can no longer achieve the results you desire, then you can consider a standard facelift.
Got more questions about the least invasive facelift? The MeTime app makes it easy to learn more. You can find out about specific cosmetic procedures by connecting with experienced cosmetic surgeons in your area. Through the app, you can chat with experts, send photos across, do a video consultation, receive quotes, and book an appointment, without ever needing to leave home. Take the first step towards a radiant, vibrant, younger-looking you. Download the MeTime app today.