This particular patient demonstrates several interesting and common points concerning facial aesthetics.
The first is the concept of "balance." The goal of cosmetic medicine is to bring different parts of the body into balance. This patient actually presented with a particular concern that could have been addressed surgically, but this patient was already in excellent physical condition, and with the attention placed instead to several of his facial issues, his entire physical presence was able to be restored in a balanced way.
When addressing facial issues in men, a surgical facelift should often times be recommended as a last resort. One reason is that nonsurgical approaches tend to give men a more natural improvement instead of the "pulled" appearance of surgery. Also men do not have as many options for covering facial scars with hair, especially if they have a receding hairline. You might be able to observe in this particular individual that six issues were addressed in order to give him a balanced improvement.
Our approach to this individual included treating him with the Airbrush Facelift. The Airbrush Facelift usually requires no incisions, and it is a customized combination therapy including lasers and long-term volume additions. Sometimes it requires the removal of excessive pockets of tissue with liposculpture, and in this patient's case it did involve surgical correction of the upper eyelid. All of these interventions are performed in a single treatment setting.
This particular patient’s identified problems included:
- Lines across the forehead and in the frown area between the eyebrows
- Redundant or loose skin of the upper eyelids
- Loss of volume under the eye resulting in "dark eyes circles"
- Loss of cheek volume, giving a flat appearance when viewed from the side
- Sun damage to the skin resulting in small broken capillaries and diffuse pigmentation changes
- Disproportion between the upper and lower lip, demonstrated from a side view which shows the lower lip has significantly more projection. This gives a "bulldog" appearance.
The customized solution:
The patient was prescribed a single treatment session which included surgical, laser surgical, and volume placement (with Artefill and Juvederm) in order to give a long-term result.
Results
The patient's lines on the forehead and between the eyebrows are significantly improved. The eyes no longer look droopy, and the dark circles under the eyes are about 60% corrected after this single treatment. The cheeks have more fullness, and the upper lip is in proportion to the lower lip. The improvement in the quality of the skin from the hairline to the neck area is substantial. In general, what makes this an excellent result is that the patient still looks like himself, as there is a restored balance to his appearance. The patient was able to return to work approximately 8 days after his treatment.
