Facelift FAQ's in Denver

Facelift FAQs

Yes, there are many. Please check on the list of medicines to be avoided and also tell us all of the medicines that you are taking.

Absolutely not! Having just had an anesthetic and surgery, you will be in no shape to manage driving! You may not even be able to walk straight for the rest of the day!

You probably will be able to take your regular medicines both before and after surgery. However, you will need to go over them with my staff and me first. There are many medicines that are incompatible with surgery and anesthesia. Therefore, we had better know what you’re taking so that we can be sure that there’s no conflict. For example, there are medicines that are meant to thin your blood and would be very dangerous in a surgical situation.

The cost will vary somewhat from person-to-person depending exactly on what is being done. When my staff quotes it, the figure will be broken down for you to include: my fee (the plastic surgeon’s fee), the cost of the operating room, anesthesiologist’s fee, cost of the overnight facility, costs of pre-operative examination and laboratory tests, approximate costs of medications, and so on. When someone else quotes you a fee for a particular surgery such as a facelift, be sure to ask whether the fee is inclusive of everything or is just the surgeon’s fee! Since a facelift is a cosmetic operation, health insurance does not cover it.

No. A normal well-balanced diet is sufficient for your needs.

Yes, you will need to stop smoking. Even just one puff of a cigarette is enough to severely and permanently injure the facial skin after a facelift. The nicotine in cigarettes as well as the nicotine replacement medications have a very bad effect on the skin following surgery and can result in poor healing and even areas of skin loss. Therefore, no smoking, nicotine replacements, or supplements following surgery for at least 1 week. Drugs that suppress the desire to smoke, such as Zyban can be used. Our staff will prescribe this for you if you wish.

As with medications, there are often health foods and nutritional supplements that interfere with anesthesia and surgery and might cause a serious problem. Therefore, you need to provide my staff and me with a list of the health foods and supplements that you wish to take or are currently taking. We will review them with you and make a recommendation.

You will receive both written and verbal instructions in wound and suture care from our nursing staff. In general, we prefer that you not touch your face at all after facelift surgery. If we instruct you to care for the stitches, it will involve gentle cleansing 2 times daily with a little hydrogen peroxide on Q-tips to remove any debris or dried blood. Following this gentle cleansing, you will apply a thin layer of antibacterial ointment, such as Bacitracin Neosporin, or Triple antibiotic, to the incision surface only. You must not press or rub over the wound or sutures.

There are a number of criteria to determine whether you are a good facelift candidate. Some are very important and others are less so. The final decision will arrive at the time of consultation.

Among the criteria are:

• Good physical and mental health
• Reasonable and realistic expectations of what surgery can accomplish
• Laxity of the skin of the forehead, cheeks, and/or neck

I believe that it is valuable for my patients to prepare both physically and mentally for this (or any other) surgery. From a physical perspective, you should:

• Eat a well-balanced diet
• Do not go on a crash diet to lose weight
• Take the vitamin, mineral, and other supplements that my staff has recommended (click for recommended supplements)
• Begin or maintain preoperative skin regimen to prepare your facial skin for surgery
• Starting 2 weeks before surgery, stop all alcoholic beverages, aspirin and aspirin-containing medications, ibuprofen, Vitamin E, garlic supplements, diet medications (including over-the-counter ones), and ay other medicines listed on our Medications to Avoid sheet
• Do not sunburn your face, especially not within 1 week of surgery!

Mental preparation:

• Think positive thoughts about the surgical experience
• Plan to have very little pain
• Plan to have no post-surgical nausea
• Know that you will have very little swelling or bruising
• Picture your youthful new face in your mind’s eye
• Read again all of the materials that you have received from my office; if you have some questions, jot them down and either be sure to ask them when we see you or call me or my staff to answer the questions
• Read in books and on the internet about facelift surgery to broadly educate yourself

Also, be sure to make all of the preoperative and aftercare arrangements that you will need:

• Transportation to-and-from surgery
• Homecare, if you will need it
• Stock-up on groceries that you will need when you get home; you probably will not feel much like taking a trip to the supermarket
• Appointment for preoperative medical examination and laboratory tests
• Filling your prescriptions 

The duration of the surgery depends on what exactly is being done. If the procedure not only includes a facelift but also several other procedures such as for the eyelids and forehead, for example, it will take longer. A facelift alone usually takes between 3-4 hours. When a complete facelift, eyelid lift, and forehead surgery are done, it will be somewhere between 5-6 hours or so.

Healing is very individual and depends on many factors including: what surgeries were done together with the facelift; your age and state of health; the thickness of your skin; amount of sun damage and loss of collagen elastic tissue; amount of facial fat; and many others. Nevertheless, on average, most patients are able to socialize and feel good about how they look in 2-3 weeks after a facelift. For some people, it can be sooner; for others, a bit longer.

Actually, you will have passed the first milestone of healing after about 1 week, by which time probably all of the sutures will have been removed. But there will still be some swelling and maybe even a little bruising. These will resolve in another week or two. But even by 3 or 4 weeks, you will still feel stiff, tight, and even numb in some places. That’s because complete healing takes months. But that healing is gradual and doesn’t restrict your activities.

Most patients report that the pain is mild. Of course, pain is a very subjective sensation. Some people have a high threshold for pain, while others are low. Whichever you are is not important. We will be providing you with all the pain medication that you will need.

Bruising and scarring after surgery are determined by a number of different factors, some of which are variable and preventable, and other of which are just hereditary and need to be accepted.

Among those that we can affect are:
Elimination of aspirin, alcohol, Vitamin E, caffeine, stimulants and similar agents that cause thin the blood and cause bleeding. Absolute avoidance of cigarette smoking, second-hand cigarette smoke, and nicotine-containing agents. Taking some of the homeopathic drugs that Dr. Grossman’s staff will recommend

No. The aging of the face, forming loose skin folds and deep wrinkles, will only respond to some type of surgery. Neither exercises nor creams and lotions that purport to tighten skin will work.

We certainly hope that you won’t dislike the results. Because, more than anything, this probably means that we have not been communicating well with each other. If you express this feeling, we will try to determine what specifically you don’t like and whether this can be changed. If the reason for your displeasure is something that can be altered, then we can discuss this option and decide whether further surgery is indicated and appropriate. Sometimes the results are permanent and unchangeable.

You can sit in a bathtub or shower with lukewarm water on the morning after surgery. However, you should basically keep the face dry. In the shower, the shower water should not strike the face, as it can damage or burn the fragile facial skin. You can gently wash your hair or have it carefully washed also beginning the day after surgery.

That will depend a bit on the speed of your recovery and whether you have had more done than just a facelift. But usually, with a facelift alone, you should be able to drive after about a week, as long as you are not still taking any pain medication.

Most patients prefer to spend the first night after surgery in our aftercare facility. They then go home the following morning. And we agree with this concept. It’s not only comfortable for you; it is a great comfort to your friends and family who are acting as your caregivers. The morning after surgery you are more awake and alert, and it’s a far less nerve-wracking situation for these non-professional caregivers.  But if you prefer, you can go home following surgery and your time in the recovery room.

After 2 weeks after surgery you can begin to drink alcoholic beverages.

Dr. Grossman performs his surgeries at our surgical suites at the Rose Ambulatory Surgery Center in the Melvin and Elaine Wolf Building in Denver, Colorado

Will I have scars? Where will they be?

In virtually any surgical procedure, there will be scars. Whenever the skin is cut, that is when an incision is made, the wound heals by forming a scar. These scars don’t need to be thick, ugly, or obvious. But there are scars! There is no “scarless surgery”! However, part of the technique of cosmetic plastic surgery is to place the scars in the natural lines and creases, along hairlines, and in places that are not usually seen. This allows the scars to be virtually invisible to the eye. In facelift surgery, the incisions often begin in the hair at the temples or along this hairline and then weave their way down the front edge of the ear and into the fold where the ear canal begins. Next, it progresses down along the base of the earlobe and around to the back surface of the ear and into the back hairline. When it heals well, this scar is very difficult to detect.

Will I need any special tests before surgery?

Yes. You will need to have a thorough medical history, physical examination, and certain laboratory tests to be certain that you are in good health and able to tolerate anesthesia and surgery. My staff and I will provide you with information about these tests and help make arrangements for you to have them.