Face lifts are a marvellous invention that can eliminate the marks of aging in one go and return freshness and youth to any face.  But this type of surgery involves our faces, which arouses very natural fears and until quite recently we would often hear this sentence:
 “Doctor, I really want to have a face lift, but I’m afraid…”

What were we worried about in those days?  The fear was often vague and poorly expressed, fear of having a strange face where we’d no longer recognise ourselves, fear of having a face that was too tight, with stiff features, a forced smile, a barely natural look, but also fear of general anaesthetics, fear of not waking up, fear of the operation and its long and painful aftermath, etc.

The considerable advances realized over the last few years have helped simplify this procedure while ensuring even better results and a longer lasting effect. There is no longer any reason to be worried about this operation. This is how the revolutionary concept of the sub-muscular face lift or Soft Lift came about.

Progress was made in several stages:

It seems to be very long ago when it was enough to simply detach facial and neck skin and then stretch it to maximum extent. The price was inevitably faces that were too taut, as if frozen.  It didn’t look natural and it wasn’t beautiful.  The goal was then to respect the natural aspect of the face as much as possible and do less invasive surgery, with more comfortable and shorter after-effects.
And this goal was achieved thanks to the discovery of SMAS (Sub Muscular Aponeurotic System):

Why is it revolutionary?

This famous muscle and aponeurotic layer lies underneath the face and neck skin and is responsible for facial expressions. It is very thin and yet very resilient, and straight away we tried to tighten it instead of the skin but were faced with a major obstacle: the facial nerve, which is the major danger in face lifts.  However, quite recently the French Cosmetic Surgery School, under the impetus of face/neck cosmetic surgeons, perfected a procedure that detaches the whole underlying SMAS layer while locating and protecting the facial nerve.

The benefits are obvious:

- Facial skin is particularly thin and fragile. Peeling it back is an invasive procedure as witnessed by the post-op swelling and bruising, skin necrosis and telangiecstasis that so many of our patients feared. What damage was caused by these vast skin lifts on the face and neck and what risks were involved!
Nowadays, only the skin around the temples is lifted.

-Lifting the entire SMAS allows us to carry out particularly gentle stretching, at the depth required. This is the best guarantee for keeping a natural look, no tautness, while preserving your normal face. In this way we can perfectly restore the face’s oval, getting rid of jowls, recovering the angle between neck and chin, finding a smooth and firm skin once more, while keeping a mobile face with unchanged and natural expressions.
- Since only the SMAS is pulled, the skin is only redraped, without undergoing any pressure. This point is essential to have neat scars that in a few months will almost completely disappear.
- Lifting the SMAS causes no bleeding contrary to lifting the skin. The aftermath of the operation is simple and short: no pain, no oedema or swelling, little risk of bruising.  Hospitalization is reduced to 24 hours and a return to normal activity is possible from the end of the first week.

VERY LOCALIZED STRETCHING INVOLVING THE MUSCLE AND NO LONGER STRETCHING FROM AFAR USING THE SKIN= MUCH GENTLER STRETCHING = NATURAL AND MOBILE LOOK.

Elle se déroule sous anesthésie générale et dure environ 4 heures. Vous avez vu en consultation pré-opératoire le médecin anesthésiste de la clinique qui vous a demandé un bilan. Vous rentrerez le matin de l'opération , â jeun et vous sortirez le lendemain de l'opération et garderez un pansement pendant 24 heures. Les cicatrices, dissimulées à la lisière des cheveux, puis derrière le lobe de l'oreille, deviendront quasi invisibles en quelques semaines.