A facelift offers the longest-lasting changes of any nonsurgical treatment or surgical procedure for facial ageing, but the number of years that a person experiences their results varies widely between patients. Many factors, from the technique used to your individual anatomy, will affect your outcome.
During your consultation, Sydney specialist plastic surgeon Dr Ellis Choy will help you understand what you can reasonably expect in the years after your facelift surgery. For Dr Choy, making sure you are fully informed and hold realistic expectations matters a great deal, because that’s what puts you in the best position to make a well-considered decision about your care.
What to Expect From Your Facelift Results Over the Years
One critical point you must understand before deciding to have a facelift: no surgery is able to stop the ageing process.
During this surgery, Dr Choy repositions the layers of tissue that have loosened and removes excess skin. Once healing is complete, your face will continue to age naturally at the same rate it always would have, but it will be starting over from a new baseline.
Average Facelift Longevity by Technique
One of the main influences on how long a facelift lasts is the technique used to perform the surgery.
Standard and SMAS Facelift
The SMAS is a sheet of tissue that sits between the facial muscles and the fat under the skin. Tightening this layer rather than just the skin above provides more structural support. A standard facelift that also lifts the small SMAS may hold for around ten years, and because the incision is longer, it allows Dr Choy to address more significant laxity across the lower two-thirds of the face.
Short-Scar and MACS Facelift
These are less invasive facelift options. A short-scar facelift addresses the lower half of the face with a shorter scar and less downtime, usually used for patients with less loose skin. The MACS lift suspends tissue with sutures rather than detaching it from the underlying muscle, which reduces recovery time but also reduces durability compared to a standard or SMAS lift. Results may last five to eight years.
You can compare a traditional facelift and a short-scar facelift in more detail here.
Deep Plane Facelift
The deep plane facelift releases the ligaments tethering the face and lifts the skin and SMAS together as one unit, moving tissue vertically instead of pulling it towards the ears. Because the work takes place at a deeper structural level, the results tend to outlast skin-focused facelift techniques. Dr Choy studied this demanding technique under well-regarded surgeons and has refined his approach over years of practice.
What Long-Term Research Shows About Facelift Durability
A study in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery followed 50 primary facelift patients for 5.5 years using standardised photographs and objective measurements. The jowl lifted by 6 mm at surgery and had relapsed by only 21 per cent at 5.5 years, with overall aesthetic assessment still positive for the large majority of patients.
A separate 25-year review of 1,089 facial surgery patients found that techniques addressing the SMAS layer delivered the most consistent long-term results. Research on repeat surgery puts the average interval between a first and second facelift at roughly nine years.
The most important thing to remember is that results and longevity are different for everyone, and there is no way to perfectly predict how natural ageing will affect your results in the years after your surgery..
What Factors Affect How Long Your Facelift Results Last?
No two faces age in quite the same way. Some factors that affect the longevity of your facelift are intrinsic (meaning they are down to your biological makeup and unchangeable), while others are extrinsic (meaning they are external and somewhat within your control).
- Skin Quality and Elasticity: Skin with better collagen and elastic recoil redrapes more smoothly and is more resistant to developing laxity in the future. Thin, sun-damaged skin loosens sooner.
- Sun Exposure: Ultraviolet radiation breaks down collagen and elastin. In our Australian climate, this is the largest modifiable influence. There are many steps you can take to protect your skin from the sun, discussed in more detail below.
- Smoking: Smoking restricts blood flow and accelerates skin ageing. Dr Choy requires patients to be non-smokers or committed to quitting well before surgery.
- Genetics and Bone Structure: Strong cheek and jaw bones support the soft tissues above them. Facial bones resorb with age at a largely inherited rate, but those with a stronger initial facial structure are likely to notice these changes less.
- Surgical Technique: A skin-only lift is limited to tissue that is more prone to stretching again. Deeper facelift techniques anchor the lift to structures that do not change as readily with age.
How to Extend the Life of Your Facelift Results
While you can’t halt ageing altogether, there are steps you can take that may help your results last longer.
Skincare and Sun Protection
Daily broad-spectrum sunscreen is important at any stage of life, but particularly as part of your post-surgery care plan. You can also protect your skin in other ways when you spend time outdoors, such as finding a shady place to sit and wearing a hat and sunglasses. Ask Dr Choy about the daily skincare that he recommends for your skin type. Ingredients like retinol and moisturisers will help keep your skin in good condition.
Maintaining a Stable Weight
Maintaining a healthy, stable weight before and after your surgery helps protect your results. Both weight gain and loss can cause changes to the fat pads and tissues of the face and may alter your results.
Using Nonsurgical Touch-Up Treatments
There is a wide range of nonsurgical treatments that can be used in the years after your surgery to help improve the texture of your skin and keep it tighter in areas like the jawline. Dr Choy also has a nonsurgical aesthetics practice to help with skin maintenance, offering laser facials, chemical peels, microneedling and more.
How Do the Results of a Facelift Compare to Nonsurgical Treatments?
There are different expectations for nonsurgical treatments than there are for surgical procedures.
For example, a treatment such as a thread lift may hold for one to two years because it stimulates collagen production in addition to physically lifting the tissues. MyEllevate uses a suture system to support the neck and jawline with less downtime than surgery and is somewhere between a thread lift and open surgery in terms of invasiveness and longevity.
Facelift surgery will outlast any nonsurgical option, with the tradeoff of a more invasive operation and a longer downtime period. The right choice will depend on many factors beyond longevity, including your candidacy and the degree of skin laxity you’re experiencing.
Book Your Consultation With Dr Ellis Choy in Sydney
Dr Ellis Choy is a specialist plastic surgeon who holds two FRACS fellowships, one in general surgery and one in plastic surgery, and completed further fellowship training in aesthetic facial surgery with the Australasian Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. He performs the full range of facelift techniques, including the deep plane approach, and will recommend the one that suits your anatomy and goals.
Call (02) 8962 9388 or contact us online to arrange a consultation.
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