Part 1: Introducing Everything You Need to Know - Facelifts in Vancouver with Dr. Buonassisi

Considering a facelift or facial rejuvenation procedure in Vancouver, Canada but not feeling informed enough? In this 9-part video series, Board Certified facial plastic surgeon Dr. Thomas Buonassisi of 8 West Clinic discusses everything you need to know about facelifts—from facial anatomy basics, to the post-op recovery process, to a discussion of the unprecedented Deep Plane Facelift technique.

This video series is a great resource to refer to if you aren't quite sure where to start before considering facelift surgery. With so many different types of facelift techniques and procedures that are improperly identified as facelifts, Dr. Buonassisi aims to untangle these and help you find where your goals might fit in, while informing on the foundational details that are essential to know. Find the whole series in one place here and learn about the complimentary Facelift Pre-Assessment service with Dr. Buonassisi's team.

‍In this video of Part 1, Dr. Buonassisi discusses the purpose of this educational facelift series and introduces the many topics that are important to be informed on before considering the procedure. With so many different types of facelift techniques and procedures that are improperly identified as facelifts, he aims to untangle these and help you find where your goals might fit in while informing on the foundational details that are essential to know: The anatomy of the face as it pertains to facelifts; How the face ages and how to figure out if you need a facelift; Procedures with the word “facelift” in their names that aren't really facelifts; All the types of surgical facelifts; All about surgical incisions, scarring, and healing; Surgical vs. non surgical techniques; Ancillary procedures that may commonly go with a facelift; All about anaesthesia and how they pertain to recovery; All about the recovery process and what to expect; What makes an unnatural-looking facelift result; and Extra procedures that complement a facelift surgery for the best possible results.

Looking for Part 2: Facial Anatomy Basics? We have compiled this entire series for easy watching all in one place!

Why Trust Your Face to Vancouver Facelift Specialist Dr. Buonassisi?

Dr. Buonassisi is a superbly trained and highly experienced cosmetic surgeon, and widely considered a top facelift surgeon, facelift specialist and facial rejuvenation expert. He is a dual Board Certified Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon with 20 years experience performing cosmetic procedures of the face, across the wide spectrum of facial rejuvenation techniques ranging from non surgical to surgical. He performs a high volume of surgeries through his Vancouver, BC practice at 8 West Cosmetic Surgery & Laser Skin Clinic on a weekly basis.

What makes Dr. Buonassisi particularly unique is that he is one of less than 5% of other surgeons who regularly performs the greatly complex Deep Plane Facelift technique, with soaring patient satisfaction rates. A highly effective procedure that can yield the largest degree of lift while preserving a natural look, the Deep Plane Facelift is also lauded for its relatively quicker and easier recovery.

Not all may be a candidate for a Deep Plane Facelift, however. Dr. Buonassisi also regularly performs other facelift techniques and more minimally invasive surgeries such as the Mini Facelift or Brow Lift, while offering a full range of non surgical facial rejuvenation treatments including Botox, dermal fillers, laser skin resurfacing with HALO technology, light-based skin rejuvenation with BBL technology, non energy-based skin treatments such as microneedling, and more. If a facelift isn't quite right for you, Dr. Buonassisi and 8 West Clinic will educate, recommend, and provide the solution that is right for you.

Complimentary Vancouver Facelift Pre-Assessments with Dr. Buonassisi's Team

Ready to book a facelift consultation at 8 West Clinic with Dr. Buonassisi? When you're ready to take the next step, our wonderful patient care team is excited to go through our proven pre-consultation process with you, in which you can access our photo review service and be assessed for candidacy based on your concerns—all complimentarily and free of charge. We endeavour to provide you with our undivided time and care in assisting with all your facelift questions, including inquiries about anaesthesia, recovery, and surgery costs to ensure you are fully informed before deciding to book a full surgical consultation. Start the conversation with a patient care manager now by filling out our online form, or by calling (604) 733-1669.

Essential Things to Consider with Facelift Surgery from Dr. Buonassisi

Get the rundown of the most essential things to know before considering facelift surgery by watching the Part 1 video above. Unable to watch the video? See Dr. Buonassisi's words in text below.

"In our practice, we see a lot of patients for what we call "aging face surgery" or "facial rejuvenation surgery". Over the years, we've made some educational videos about facelift surgery and some of the techniques that we use. They're getting a little tired, so we thought we'd do a new series of them and also incorporate some of the new things that have developed, or some of the new techniques that are being used with this type of surgery.

This is a series of videos that includes some educational information and also some video footage of actual surgery. I'm not expecting people to be able to decide what type of facelift they need, or what technique is going to be best for them, but it's a way for people to get exposed to some of the different techniques.

And of course, all surgeons have to decide what's the best technique for a particular patient, given what their anatomy is like; given what their goals are. So this is just sort of a rough idea to allow people to understand some of the terminology and get a sense for maybe where they might fit in.

One of the reasons we wanted to do this is that there's so much information out on the internet. There are hundreds of types of facelifts that people describe—and this is not really the case. There are a few very standard, useful, and thorough ways of performing a facelift. There's no such thing as a non surgical facelift.

There are very standard well-known techniques that do work, but there's lots of different names for them. And so what I'm going to try and do is bring all of these techniques together in a fairly concise fashion so that people can get an idea of the three or four basic techniques that work and that are used widely, but perhaps called something different by various surgeons.

Also in this series, we've got a documentation of a patient that I recently did a deep plane facelift for, and we're going to follow her progress from prior to her surgery, her initial consults, and through the surgery—you can actually watch the surgery being done—and then we'll follow her in the post-op period to give you an idea of what to expect, at least as a guideline. Of course, everybody recovers differently, some people get more swelling and bruising than others. But this should give you a rough idea of what it would be like to go through this type of a procedure and what would be the benefits of it."

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So let me outline for you now the topics that we're going to cover in this series:

We're going to do a review of facial anatomy as it pertains to facelift surgery.
We're going to review how the face ages and how you can tell, or how you would know, that maybe you need a facelift.
We're also going to talk about some of the trends in facelifts, which often include procedures that might have the word facelift in them, but aren't actually facelifts. There are some non surgical techniques, there are some quasi surgical techniques—like thread lifts—and then there's some of the more modern, or perhaps more innovative surgical techniques that seem to give really good results for patients. And we're going to sort of go through all of those with various videos.
We're then going to cover all of the specific types of surgical facelifts, and what's involved in each of those. During that time, I'll try and give you a sense for what these surgical techniques are often labeled, or what they're called by different surgeons or various practices.
We're going to talk about incisions and what to expect from those incisions in terms of scarring, how they're designed, and how we hide them. And again, we'll walk you through the course of an incision healing process, so you get an idea of what that looks like.
We're going to compare and contrast surgical and non surgical techniques for facial rejuvenation. I think it's important to call the surgical techniques "facelifts" and the non surgical techniques—although they're called non surgical facelifts—I think that's a misnomer. I think these are "skin rejuvenation treatments" or perhaps "skin tightening treatments", but I think, to call them facelifts is actually quite inaccurate and so I'll try and avoid that. There's lots of things like liquid facelifts and lunchtime facelifts, and those terms have become so ingrained that people consider them to be a real thing. But, they're not.
We'll talk about some ancillary procedures that are often performed at the time of a facelift. For example, skin resurfacing, eyelid procedures, brow lifts. These are things that sometimes people also benefit from and often like to combine them with their facelifts so that they can recover from both at the same time.
Anaesthetic options for facial rejuvenation: we'll go in detail about the different types of anaesthesia that can be used to make patients comfortable, but also to minimize the recovery period.
We'll go through the recovery process of a facelift. Of course, everyone's different, but some of the less invasive facelifts have a shorter recovery, whereas the more substantial lifts will take a little longer to recover from. But we'll go through the recovery process so that you would have an idea of what to expect from a typical recovery period during a facelift.
We'll review why some of the surgical techniques can lead to an unnatural look to the facelift and how this can be avoided.
Some of the ancillary procedures or treatments that we use in combination with facelift surgery are non surgical treatments—of course, we're not calling them facelift techniques—these are things that can really help give people a really nice result from their facelift overall. These include the use of laser resurfacing for making the skin texture smoother, and BroadBand Light for improving pigment and redness in the skin. And lastly, Botox and fillers can help areas of the face look much better by reducing wrinkles and by adding volume. These are things that we can't do with a facelift. So I think they really complement the result and we use them quite regularly to give our patients the best possible outcome.

"I hope you enjoy these videos, try and watch them all. There's a lot of interesting information. And I think that once you've digested some of the information that we present, you will get a clearer idea of what's real and what's not, the things that are helpful and perhaps aren't, where you might fit in on the spectrum of facial rejuvenation, and whether this is something that might be helpful for you."

Watch the Rest of Dr. Buonassisi's Facelift Series

All About Facelifts with Dr. Buonassisi:

Real Patient Experience Documentary:

Linda's Deep Plane Facelift and Neck Lift Experience at 8 West Clinic

Book a Complimentary Vancouver Facelift Pre-Assessment

Ready to take the next step in your facelift journey? Request a complimentary pre-consultation with Dr. Buonassisi's knowledgeable patient care team at 8 West Clinic, where you can have the chance to have all your facelift questions answered before you decide to book a full surgical consultation with a doctor. Fill out our online form, or call (604) 733-1669 today.