How is PrecisionTx® different from a Surgical Facelift?

Well, we’re now about six months into quarantine and most of us are in virtual meetings all day while checking to see if our kids are doing their virtual work. If you’re like me, you show up on your virtual meetings looking like this:

If you’re staring at your virtual self all day, you may notice this:

As we age, it’s very common to start having some fullness under your chin. This is especially true if you’re stuck looking down at a screen for hours on end!

Fortunately, we here at WEFPS have some solutions. Traditionally you would consider a facelift to address this area.

Surgical facelifts are super effective! They remain the gold standard for returning vitality to the aging lower face and neck. The down side of this procedure is lack of convenience: you have to go under anesthesia in an operating room and you realistically need privacy for a week to ten days while you heal.

PrecisionTx^®

For the past three years, we’ve been offering our patients an alternative to traditional facelift techniques called PrecisionTx^®. PrecisionTx^® is a hybrid between a surgical facelift and non-invasive treatments that require no down time (but can’t deliver the same result!).

After I liberally apply numbing medicine to your face and neck, I make three tiny incisions: one under your chin, and two others just in front of your ears. A laser system then goes to work under your skin to obliterate fat cells. You can actually hear the laser firing and doing its work!

After the laser dissolves the fat cells, I pull them out with a syringe. Then the laser returns to the area to apply heat and induce collagen formation and tightening. The tightening process continues post operatively for about six months, and the results can be impressive for the right person.

While PrecisionTx^® gets rid of fat and tightens skin, surgical facelifts mobilize the deeper tissues of the face to lift and tighten the skin.

Surgical Facelift

Surgical facelifts address laxity in the deeper tissue layers of the face. I make incisions around your ears and in your hairline (you’re under anesthesia so you’re none the wiser) as shown in blue. We find the sagging deeper tissue layers, then return them to a more youthful position with permanent sutures. Excess skin is removed and the incisions are closed with small external stitches.

Obviously, this is more invasive than PrecisionTx^®. You will have stitches to take care for post operatively and this type of procedure must be performed in an operating room. You’ll also realistically need to heal for a week to ten days as bruising subsides. If you prefer to keep the procedure private, you may choose to avoid the public eye until traces of the surgery are less obvious. That being said, the results of a surgical facelift can be dramatic and this remains the gold standard to reverse more advanced signs of aging.

Both of these procedures are great options for the aging face and neck. I consider many factors in helping a patient decide what is the best choice for them. Is their anatomy appropriate for PrecisionTx^®, or do they need the deep layer support of a surgical facelift? Can their schedule accommodate the down time from a surgical lift, or do we need to do something that has a shorter healing time? From an emotional standpoint, can they handle being awake while I’m tightening their neck? Some people would just rather be put to sleep. Are they healthy enough for anesthesia?

PrecisionTx^® and surgical facelifts are both excellent options for treating the aging face and neck. Click here to see some examples of each! Schedule a consultation to see which option is best for you!