Our Approach

A Unique Approach for Every Patient

The facelift is the procedure “par excellence” for rejuvenating the middle and lower third of the face. If your goal is to restore a more youthful appearance in the midface, jawline, and neck, you are looking at some kind of facelift.

When researching facelift techniques, you will come across terms such as midface lift, mini facelift, MACS facelift, deep plane facelift, SMAS facelift, and many more. However, it’s important to understand that more than one technique may be utilized in any given facelift procedure. In other words, these terms are not mutually exclusive categories. Rather, they are the terms surgeons usually use to communicate with each other. For example, if I tell another surgeon, "I used a deep plane technique for the midface," the other surgeon knows that the plane of dissection was under the SMAS and certain facial ligaments were resected.

Demystifying Facelift Techniques

What has happened is that these terms have become confused with a single type of procedure. Every facelift in my hands is unique. It is customized to a patient's individual anatomy, unique aging sequence, and unique needs. I may use mini facelift techniques in some areas, MACS facelift techniques in some patients, and deep plane facelift techniques in other patients. There is no one universal facelift technique that every patient gets. There is no one method that is the "best facelift technique.”

This ability to customize the technique, dissection, plane of dissection, and extent of dissection in each patient creates natural results that give you that wow factor.

In conclusion, the pages on this site dedicated to these techniques are only guidelines. The intention is to give you some idea of some of the techniques that I use. It is not an exhaustive list. In over twenty years in practice, I have evolved my approach, often combining multiple techniques beyond those mentioned here. For this reason, it is impossible to compare my facelift with any other facelift. Well-balanced, natural-looking cosmetic surgery is not a menu of items where you can compare facelift techniques and prices across surgeons. The result you are getting has been completely customized for you.

— Raghu Athré, MD, PA