Comparison of Face & Neck Surgery Incisions
Vancouver facial plastic Surgeon Dr. Thomas Buonassisi explains the various facelift incisions that can be used. The size and shape of the incision depends on the skin flap that is to be raised. The larger the flap, the most lift.
Video transcript: I am going to explain the different incisions that are using in face and neck lift surgery. I'll show comparisons incisions and skin flaps that we elevate through the various procedures.
What is often called an "S Lift" is a procedure where a small incision is placed and then just a small amount of skin is elevated so we can access the posterior part of the SMAS. Through this incision the SMAS can be lifted to a certain degree underneath the skin and then the skin is re-draped. You'll notice that this layer - if we're pulling on it - is very far away from the jaw line and neck so it's unlikely to have a substantial affect on those tissues.
In a short incision face lift what we're doing is we're making a small incision but we're lifting a full face lift flap. This skin you can see in pink is the skin that gets elevated with a short scar facelift. That's going to allow substantial access to all of the SMAS layer underneath and so it can be pulled and tightened dramatically through just a very small incision that's not actually much larger than the S Lift incision.
Now with the long incision facelift - it's very similar to the short incision except the incision is extended into the occipital area and what that does is allows for elevation of more of the skin in the neck. In patients who have significant laxity in the neck and a lot of that skin needs to be removed, this is a big advantage to extend the incision behind the ear into the hair line.