Facelift vs. fillers

Choosing your best route to natural-looking facial rejuvenation

Sometimes the mirror doesn’t reflect how we truly feel inside.
We eat well, exercise, practice meditation and still, our skin is susceptible to the hands of time. With age, skin on the face and neck can wrinkle and sag as muscles weaken and collagen diminishes beneath the surface. This is when we begin to crave the fullness and elasticity associated with younger and healthier-looking skin.

Luckily, natural-looking skin rejuvenation is a passion for the medico-aesthetic specialists at Clinique K. Founder and chief surgeon Dr. Karl Schwarz and his team are at your disposal to help you decide between a surgical facelift or fillers, or a combination of both, when feel your moment for rejuvenation has arrived.

Surgical lift vs. non-surgical rejuvenation: which one?
When choosing a plan for your face and neck, facelift and fillers come to mind most often. In many cases, patients are candidates for both. Each month, Dr. Schwarz schedules consultations to determine which course of treatment will produce the best result.

“When a patient’s skin is sagging, and in particular skin of the neck and jowls, they are typically a better candidate for a face or neck lift. This is because, at a certain point, fillers and wrinkle relaxers like Botox will not be enough for a satisfactory improvement.” He adds, “but I think most patients can benefit from a combination of wrinkle relaxers and fillers.

A facelift improves the lower two thirds of the face and neck
To give yourself an idea of which procedure might work best for your unique situation, consider this: a facelift improves the lower two thirds of the face and neck. It helps to tighten neck skin, lifts the cheeks, smooths out the jawline, and can improve the appearance of jowls.

“A facelift will give you a more defined or sculpted jawline. It tightens the excess skin of the neck, so it’s really the bottom two thirds of the face and the neck are treated really well by a facelift,” says Dr. Schwarz.

What about wrinkle relaxers and fillers?
Wrinkle relaxers (like Botox) are used to smooth out or relax the wrinkles of the forehead, frown lines, and crow’s feet which are the little smile lines lateral to the eyes. Relaxers are administered by injecting it directly into the muscles that cause wrinkles.

Fillers such as Restylane, Juvederm, Radiesse, and Sculptra not only fill wrinkles as their category name suggests, but are effective in achieving larger or more defined cheekbones or changing the shape of the face to a younger-looking oval shape. These medico-aesthetic products are ideal for non-surgical facial rejuvenation, whether used alone or in combination with a facelift.

“It is important to note, if someone has a lot of excess facial or neck skin, there is no amount of filler that will improve the face and neck contour as nicely as a facelift.” Dr. Schwarz explains. “We often use fillers to prevent or improve signs of aging until a certain point is reached, when the patient becomes a good candidate for a facelift.”

A natural-looking result is always the goal
“We used to rely on fillers to simply fill wrinkles. We’ve since moved away from that and more towards producing subtle changes and enhancing facial shape,” Dr. Schwarz adds. “This is done by giving people a little bit more cheekbone – subtly. It’s all about subtle, natural-looking changes. The goal is always an enhanced, more youthful version of who you are right now.”