Recovery From Facelift Procedure in Los Angeles
Facelifts are widely popular because they fix multiple aging issues. One procedure takes up to two decades off your appearance, and the results are long-lasting. This procedure can combat unwanted wrinkles, jowls, and saggy skin to allow patients to turn back the clock on their face, appearing much younger and brighter.
Women in their 50s and 60s seek out facial lift surgery in Los Angeles to correct their heavy wrinkles, but women as young as 40 can undergo this procedure to achieve a more youthful appearance. There’s no specific age for this procedure; it just depends on when the client has become dissatisfied with their aging process.
Botox and fillers can help ease the aging process, but a Los Angeles facelift will alleviate signs of aging that non-surgical options just can’t tackle. A facelift works by removing and reshaping excess, sagging skin and fatty tissue, pulling it up and adjusting it to a more upright and youthful position. The results of a facelift procedure are drastic, making many people feel like they aged backwards overnight. The long-lasting and transformative results make this a top choice for people who want to look younger.
Just because you are a good candidate for a facelift, it may not work for you if you are not prepared for the amount of recovery time required. Since it’s a hefty procedure, there is a longer recovery time than if you had injectable fillers. It’s important to understand the protocol following a facelift before you decide to go through with it.
Recovery time for a facelift is not exact, and it is dependent on the patient’s age, health, and specific type of procedure performed. However, your surgeon’s postoperative care instructions are more precise, so you should follow them closely. Taking care of your healing surgery will give your situation better results.
The facelift recovery period is about a month, and we’ve divided it by weeks.
Week 1
A facelift is performed through making incisions in the skin and stitching them back, higher so that sagging skin is stretched and no longer wrinkly. You must take extra care to keep the incision areas clean to prevent your wounds from being infected, but on your first day, you should avoid touching the area entirely since the wound is fresh.
Day 1: After surgery, the sedative and anesthetic make make you feel unsteady and sleepy. It’s important to arrange for a buddy to drive you home from the surgeon’s office and look after you on your first night home. It’s normal to feel pain, and you can take medication to help yourself rest comfortably. Your cosmetic surgeon in LA will provide you with a facial bandage that will support your healing skin.
Day 2: At this time, you should revisit your surgeon for a follow-up visit. By seeing your facial plastic surgeon in Los Angeles again, they can make sure you aren’t feeling too much discomfort, and they will also get a chance to change out your surgical dressings and evaluate your healing process.
Day 3: You should still rest, but you can also move around some to start getting back to normal. The bruising and swelling will reach its height on this day or the next, but know that this is normal. This swelling will not completely vanish for a few weeks.
Days 4-6: By this time, most patients no longer need their pain medication. You should also start to feel more energetic, like you can start moving around your home and doing light housework.
Week 2
Swelling and bruising will still be present, and they may cause you to feel some tightness and tingling. This is completely normal. At the end of your second week of recovery, you should be ready to return to work and you can return to light activities like walking.
Weeks 3 and 4
At this point in time, your surgeon can remove your sutures. They may actually remove them during week 2, but it depends on your healing process. Residual swelling and tightness may be present, but this is the point in the healing process where you can catch a glimpse of your new appearance. Improvements to your facial contour will be present, but they will continue to shape out over the next few weeks.
You’ll look and feel much better three weeks into your recovery. You’ll likely feel healthy and active enough to work or exercise your regular routine, as long as it’s not too strenuous. When you return to your regular social life and office life, you won’t look too different from your appearance pre-operation, and people likely won’t notice you had any work done. However, you will look much younger in time as your body heals and adjusts to the surgery.
In weeks 3 and 4 of your recovery, your incision site will start to improve in appearance. While the scars will still be bunched up and puckered, they will start to settle down and become minimal in appearance. Once fully healed, your scars will be hardly visible and obscured by your hairline.
In the month following your facelift procedure in LA, you will see dramatic improvements in your appearance, and you will feel better on both the inside and outside. It’s important not to rush your body’s healing process and to trust your doctor’s expertise in improving your sagging skin. At this point in time, you should be able to do everything you could before; just make sure to exercise good judgement.
About Westside Face
The plastic surgery specialists of Westside Face emphasize preserving the bone structure and skin vitality that’s unique to each individual patient while making small, but impactful, improvements. This technique allows us to rejuvenate patient’s faces by enacting small and deliberate changes that make a huge difference. Each patient that undergoes cosmetic enhancement at Westside Face can expect:
- Natural-looking changes
- Long-lasting results
- Shortest possible recovery time
Plastic surgery patients often want to return to their everyday life ASAP after a procedure, and our approach allows a speedy recovery. Minimal downtime plays a huge role in client satisfaction.
Whether it’s vision obstruction or breathing issues, we also aim to improve functionality with our cosmetic surgeries. Our award-winning closed scarless rhinoplasty, revision rhinoplasty, facelifts, and necklifts will not only make you look better, but you’ll also feel better. Even more, we accept and are in-network with Medicare, and most PPO/HMO insurances. Schedule a consultation with an aesthetic specialist at Westside Face today by calling 310-846-8519 or emailing appointments@westsideface.com.
