Dr. Buckingham’s Q&A

Kelly,

The short answer to your question regarding whether a non-surgical facelift is effective is no.  That is there is no comparison between what a facelift can achieve and any other procedure.  However, there are other options to a facelift as long as the patient understands what the expected results will be.  I am against calling these techniques by the name non-surgical facelift however as it is misleading.  Those procedures would include facial fillers such as Restylane, Juvederm and Radiesse or facial volume enhancement with a fat transfer (technically a surgical procedure).  Fillers can be used to fill in hollows and lines surrounding the mouth area or to fill in more generalized facial volume loss.  This can give the face a much more youthful appearance.  Unfortunately, fillers cannot improve the neckline.

Fortunately a facelift is not what it once was with regard to pain and recovery.  There are now many different minimally invasive facelift options available (still surgical however) depending on the degree of aging.  Some of these are performed in the office under local anesthesia and have only a few days of recovery time.  Even a full fledged facelift has only 10 days of recovery time and any of these procedures, performed in the right hands, will lead to significant and natural appearing results.  Please take some time to review our photo gallery to see for yourself the natural and dramatic results that can be achieved.  Please feel free to call any time as well.

Ed Buckingham