The Deep-Plane Facelift: What Is It and Why Is It Important?

If you do an internet search for the term facelift, you find an overwhelming amount of information in seconds, and you’re not sure where to begin. 

This blog is an excellent place to start, as board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Jonathan Zelken takes great pride in educating patients about the various techniques in plastic surgery. 

As a leading expert in facelifts, the 6th most popular cosmetic procedure in the United States, Dr. Zelken has spent decades studying facial structures and how they respond to various methods and approaches. 

Given this extensive study, combined with Dr. Zelken’s commitment to delivering results that look natural and last, we’ve found that the deep plane facelift is an excellent choice. Here’s why.

Deep-plane facelift — beyond a little lipstick and rouge

There’s an old expression about throwing on lipstick and rouge to dress something up temporarily, and that’s exactly what we don’t want in a cosmetic procedure.

With older facelifts, that’s a little bit what was going on — to tackle sagging, wrinkled, and aging skin, surgeons made incisions in the skin, pulled it taut, removed any excess, and then resutured the ends together.

The problem with this approach is that it’s only a quick fix and can damage already delicate, aging skin under excessive tension. Results are fleeting, and when they fade, your skin isn’t in great shape.

This is why the deep-plane facelift is fast gaining favor as a more effective and durable technique.

With a deep plane facelift, Dr. Zelken works beneath the surface of your skin to isolate your superficial muscular aponeurotic system (SMAS), the layer below your skin that holds the muscle, fat, and skin together. To isolate this tissue, we release the ligaments holding your SMAS in place.

Tightening the SMAS while protecting your skin

By going deeper and releasing the structures that hold your SMAS in place, we not only gain better access for tightening and repositioning, but we can also do it in a way that doesn’t harm your skin.

More specifically, one of the main reasons Dr. Zelken appreciates the deep plane facelift is that, by releasing your SMAS entirely, he’s able to minimize any tension on your delicate skin. This allows Dr. Zelken to tighten the layers beneath your skin and your skin without adding tension as he moves the pieces together. And without this tension, you get minimal scarring and more durable, natural-looking results. 

A deep-plane facelift is far more structural than cosmetic, allowing Dr. Zelken to create greater harmony in your face and deliver results that will keep people guessing.

To learn more, you can check out this video, which reviews the different types of facelifts for context.

Areas we can address with a deep place facelift

Now, we want to touch on some of the more specific goals we can achieve with the deep-plane facelift.

With a deep plane facelift, Dr. Zelken can target individual concerns, such as:

• Deep nasolabial folds
• Marionette lines around your mouth
• Malar fat pad (the apple of your cheek) repositioning
• Buccal fat pad removal or repositioning
• Festoons (malar mounds), which are bags that form below traditional eye bags
• Jowls

During your initial consultation, you sit down with Dr. Zelken to review your goals, and then we can figure out which approach would be best. We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all solutions, especially when it comes to facial surgery. 

So, know that each of our facelifts is tailored specifically to each client, and Dr. Zelken takes his time, from consultation to the procedure to recovery. In fact, Dr. Zelken’s procedures can be a little longer because he never cuts corners and always goes the extra mile to make sure you’re pleased with the results, and not just one year from now, but ten years from now.

If you have more questions about the deep plane facelift and would like to schedule a consultation, call our Newport Beach, California-based practice at (949) 676-9119. Or, you can request an appointment using our online booking tool.