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Print7 Healthcast: Women's Health Week: Mini-Facelift
In 7 Healthcast: a new, less painful way to have plastic surgery. Usually, the procedure means invasive surgery and weeks of recovery. Now there's a facelift that takes less than an hour, and only a weekend to heal! Healthcast reporter Janet Wu has details in tonight's "Women's Health Week" special.
As an aesthetician, Judy Giordano of Danvers wants to look her best. At 51, she felt the facelift she had six years earlier, needed a refresher.
Judy Giordano, Danvers
"I had just a bit of droopiness in the jowl area and in the mid-face."
Judy had what's known as a "mini" or "weekend" facelift.
"What bothers you most?"
"Gravity!"
Mass Eye and Ear Dr. Mack Cheney says the "mini" is a simpler procedure than a full face lift, with patients able to recover over a single weekend.
Dr. Mack Cheney, Mass. Eye & Ear Surgeon
"We have time scheduled to do these kinds of things on Friday and then most patients are ready to go back to work on Monday."
For many patients, it's their first plastic surgery, allowing them to just tighten up the neck or facial muscles, or both.
Dr. Mack Cheney
"It works very well for selected, isolated problems around the face."
Make no mistake, the mini-facelift is still surgery, and patients need to be in pretty good health. Surgeons recommend clearing it with a primary care physician before getting it done. But it's the surgery's quick recovery time that makes the mini-facelift so attractive
Dr. Mack Cheney
"We're going to numb things up."
Tiny incisions are made and hidden in the hairline, where others may not even notice them, allowing patients to avoid the two-to-three weeks it takes to heal from a full facelift. Only a local anesthetic is needed so patients aren't groggy and most feel back to themselves within a day or two.
Dr. Mack Cheney
"If you can go to the dentist and have oral work done, then you can have this done."
Doctors warn that mini-facelift patients shouldn't expect the same dramatic results traditional facelifts provide.
Dr. Mack Cheney
"This is much more subtle than a full facelift."
But for Judy, subtle changes make all the difference.
Judy Giordano
"Typically I am mistaken for a younger woman and I have two grandchildren and most people think, I'm the mother! Laughs"
Judy won't hesitate to do it again!
Judy Giordano
"I think about it as going for a manicure or pedicure!"
Mini-facelifts will save you both time and money. The typical mini-facelift costs between $1,300 and $3,000 dollars, less than half of a full facelift.
For more information:
Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary: 617 573-4419