Dr. Prasad compares his quick recovery facelift technique using safer local anesthesia and light IV sedation to traditional facelifts, which may use general anesthesia, bandages and drains, and have long downtime.
Q: Can You Tell Me The Differences Between Traditional Facelifts Depending on the Surgeon?
My husband had a face/neck lift 3 days ago. He wore a thick bandage with drains for 2 days, took anti-inflammatory and antibiotics. His face is very swollen, and he is asked to sleep on his back for a month. My sister is having the same procedure in Paris but tells me she won’t even stay overnight, she plans to rest at home for a few days and start work after 7 days. Her doctor says she can sleep on her side no problem. Same procedure – why the difference? Asking because I’m scheduled for same!
A: Facelift Surgery Recovery Factors
Depending on your facelift surgeon’s technique, certain factors will affect your recovery downtime after having facial cosmetic surgery. The goal of a facelift is to lift the cheeks, improve the jawline and neck. A lot of surgeons who are more traditionally trained use general anesthesia, and the surgery often has trauma to the area resulting to swelling requiring drains and bandages, as you’ve described.. A quicker recovery facelift method, such as the one used at my practice in New York, has been developed to alleviate the recovery process and at the same time produce the same goals with great, natural-looking results. At our practice, we use local anesthesia with light IV sedation (“twilight”) with no drains and some facial bandages placed. Local anesthesia for facelift surgery is also safer than general anesthesia.