Planning Your Facial Plastic Surgery
The first step in making a qualified decision for the best surgical procedure to help restore facial function or appearance is to make sure you select a plastic surgeon who is a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, (ASPS) or the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons (AAFPRS). These are surgeons who have met very vigorous compliance standards in their field. Be sure your scheduled facial plastic surgery will take place in an accredited, state licensed, and/or a Medicare-certified surgical facility.
If you are having problems with a facial scar, talk with your surgeon in detail about how he expects to minimize your scars’ visibility. Does he suggest creating texture and matched skin tone that will be consistent with your surrounding skin? Scar revisions can include different procedures like contractures, excision, laser resurfacing, Z-plasty, tissue expansion, or skin grafts. If you do not understand the surgical terms your surgeon is discussing, be sure you ask questions.
Children Who Need Facial Plastic Surgery
A child may need surgery to restore function and create a more normal appearance to correct abnormal development of the lip or palate. A cleft lip surgery is called a cheiloschisis, to repair a birth defect that separated the upper lip. Repairing the palate is called a palatoschisis surgical process that repairs the separation in the roof of the mouth. These surgeries will improve the child’s ability to eat food, breathe, and hear properly, as well as restore a more normal appearance.
Types of Facial Plastic Surgery
Plastic surgery for an eyelid tuck or blepharoplasty can repair sagging eyelids that may be causing impaired vision. An eyelid surgical procedure for improving functional eyelid problems, or to improve eyelid appearance will remove and tighten excess skin, repair bags under the eyes, lift drooping lower lids, remove folds created by loose or sagging skin around the eyes.
Another facial plastic surgery that is common is a surgical lift of the eyebrows, called a forehead lift. Good candidates for a brow lift surgery are physically healthy, do not smoke, and have a positive outlook and realistic goals. This surgery reduces horizontally running wrinkles across the forehead and over the bridge of the nose. This facial plastic surgery is designed to raise sagging eyebrows that sometimes hood the upper eyelids. The procedure will reduce frown wrinkles and returns brows to an alert and more youthful position.
The rhytidectomy or facelift is a facial plastic surgery solution to improve visible effects of aging in the face and neck areas. The repair procedure will improve the following:
- fat that has fallen or disappeared
- sagging in the middle of the face
- loose skin and fatty deposits under the chin and jawline can give a person the appearance of a double chin
- loose skin tone in the lower face creates jowls
- deep creases extending from the either side of the nose to the mouth
- deep creases below the lower eyelids
Preparation
In preparation for facial surgery, your surgeon might have you schedule labs tests, a medical evaluation, take certain prescribed medications, adjust your current prescribed medications, and quit smoking. Your surgeon will also require that you stop taking all herbal supplements, aspirin, and anti-inflammatory drugs that could cause increased risk of bleeding.
Follow the special instructions for the night before and the morning of your scheduled facial plastic surgery. Read all details regarding anesthesia before signing the surgery agreement. Understand instructions for the post-operative care and follow-up treatment care.
