The Silhouette Facelift

Created on 10th September 2009

Leading cosmetic surgeon, Mr Christopher Inglefield of London Bridge Plastic Surgery, presents the Silhouette Facelift, which deals with the signs of ageing without the scarring and downtime associated with a traditional facelift

Ageing induces several changes in the tissues of our face. The skin loses elasticity and becomes lax, fat decreases and becomes displaced by gravity producing the typical jowls, flat cheek and lower eye bags. Muscles also lose their size and strength and with loss of bone especially around the upper and lower jaws, the face takes on the typical features of ageing. The face assumes a tired sagging appearance.

Extrinsic ageing caused by sun-damage and pollution (smoking) accelerates the loss of collagen and hyaluronic acid, and induces abnormal pigmentation (age spots), fine blood vessels and wrinkles to appear.

The traditional approach to restoring a youthful facial appearance is to perform a lower facelift - S-Lift, short scar facelift or MACs Lift, which may be combined with a skin peel or laser resurfacing to correct sun damage. This approach enables very effective correction of displaced tissues and effective rejuvenation.

However, the downside of this surgery is significant scarring and recovery time lasting for four to six weeks.

Many patients who wish to look better for their age are not comfortable with the scars and downtime required for facelift surgery. Minimally invasive techniques for rejuvenating the face have therefore increased in popularity in order to provide these patients with effective facial rejuvenation.

The recent appreciation of the importance of volume loss contributing to facial ageing has lead to the increasing use of injectable products/fillers in restoring a more youthful appearance.

Thread lifting was introduced to correct the skin sagging and initial techniques were simple to carry out and associated with little downtime, usually five to seven days. Unfortunately, these initial techniques used barbed threads which caused side effects related to the sharp barbs and were limited in the effectiveness with loss of correction as early as twelve months, because of the failure of the barbs to maintain a secure hold on the skin tissues.

The Silhouette Facelift technique uses novel threads of permanent sutures incorporating tiny absorbable cones which lift and reposition the tissues of the skin. These Silhouette Sutures have been approved by the FDA in the USA and have received the CE mark.

The threads are secured to the deep strong fibrous tissue in the temple region ensuring that the lifting of the sagging tissues is long lasting. Normally four threads are used on each side of the face and two to three are used on each side of the neck. The Silhouette Facelift normally takes 45 minutes and treatment of the face and neck takes 90 minutes. The cones dissolve over a period of three to four months leaving the sutures to lift the tissues for up to four or five years.

The Silhouette Facelift procedure is designed to rejuvenate the lower face and neck with a minimally invasive procedure that is performed under local anaesthetic as an outpatient. No hospital stay is required and the recovery time is normally three to five days.

The ideal patient for the Silhouette Facelift procedure is 35 to 45 years of age with early jowls and sagging of the cheek and neck, who does not have significant skin laxity and who would like to restore a fresher, more youthful appearance, but wants to avoid the risks and downtime of a standard facelift procedure.

However, in combination with the Silhouette Facelift procedure, several other non-surgical or minimally invasive treatments or procedures may be suitable to achieve the optimum rejuvenation of the face.

Rejuvenation treatments or procedures may include skincare range Obagi NuDerm to correct age and sun damage changes in the skin such as age spots, hyperpigmentation and wrinkles; non-surgical laser photo-rejuvenation to stimulate collagen and elastin production to improve skin tone and elasticity; Botox to relax hyperactive muscles; dermal fillers such as Evolence and Restylane to restore volume in the cheeks, tear trough and chin, and the Silhouette Browlift to lift drooping eyebrows.

Thus, at the time of the consultation a thorough assessment of the face and neck should be performed and a full discussion of the non-surgical and surgical procedures is essential to providing the most natural facial rejuvenation.
CS&AM