Step 2: Making The Incision

• Step 1: Facelift Surgery Goals
• Step 2: Making the Incision
• Step 3: Creating a Pocket
• Step 4: Understanding the Layers
• Step 5: Trimming and Tightening
• Step 6: Improving Jaw Definition
• Step 7: Firming the Neck
• Step 8: Removing Extra Skin
• Step 9: Placing Fine Sutures
• Step 10: The Final Result

Our surgeons make mini-facelift incision around the ear, where it meets the face, and at the temporal (sideburn) hairline. This location provides the surgeons access, so they can release the skin from the underlying tissues. Once that’s complete, the surgeon elevates and tightens those tissues. Making the incisions around the ear and along the hairline means the resulting scars will be inconspicuous. Additionally, the lift is performed more vertically, rather than sideways towards the ear. Our Colorado facelift patients benefit because the results look more natural and avoid the “windswept” look. Also, placing the incision at the hairline avoids creating a bald spot where the sideburn belongs, which isn’t aesthetically pleasing.

Mini-Facelift vs. Traditional Facelift

A traditional facelift involves making an incision in the hair-bearing scalp rather than at the hairline. This can create the unnatural, operated-on look that our surgeons want to avoid. This location may elevate the sideburn because hair-bearing skin at the top of the lift is removed, shifting the hairline upward. As mentioned, for a mini-facelift the surgeons make the upper part of the incision at the temporal hairline, avoiding these issues. The traditional facelift extends the incision into the hair behind the ear. Patients who wear their hair short or pulled back may see the resulting scar, at least until it fades. A mini-facelift incision made within the crease behind the ear eliminates this concern.

Finally, surgeons performing a full facelift usually make incisions beneath the chin. This helps them separate the skin from the underlying tissues and allows for sewing together of the neck muscles in the midline. As explained with later illustrations, the mini-facelift technique usually does not require this incision.

Step 3: Creating a Pocket