Anyone at least over 35 whose face and/or neck show excessively loose skin (and sometimes muscles). Anyone who looks excessively "old", "tired" and "worn out" for his/her age or social activities, and wishes to achieve a younger look to a reasonable extent.
Smokers should not smoke for at least one month before and after the treatment.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCEDURE

This procedure can be performed only in operating rooms under conscious sedation or general anaesthesia. This technique involves first "detaching" and then stretching the area to be treated, and if necessary, lifting it up. Whenever the neck is involved too, it might be necessary to overlap the muscles beneath it in order to avoid the "pelican" effect.
Incisions and sutures are made in the front and the back of the ear.

POST-OPERATIVE PHASE AND CONVALESCENCE

At the end of the procedure a bandage filled with cotton will be applied and the incisions will be medicated with strip band-aids (steri-strip).
This procedure REQUIRES at least a one-night hospitalization, unless the patient asks to stay longer or the surgeon finds it necessary.
In the first post-operative days the treated areas may look edematose (swollen) and ofter ecchymotic (purple bruises that turn yellowish after a few days and eventually disappear), and this condition will end in the space of 7-14 days, depending on the patient's predisposition.
The patient usually feels no or very little post-operative pain, which can be easily managed with painkillers. During the first 7-15 days after the procedure the patient has to take antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs, or even other types of drugs if the surgeon or the anaesthetist find it necessary.
Intense physical activities and exercises must be suspended for about 30 days.

RISKS AND COMPLICATIONS

Just as after every surgical procedure some bleeding might occur. If it doesn't stop spontaneously or after the first wound dressing performed by the medical staff, it is necessary to take the patient back into the operating room and stop the haemorrhage. This might sound scary and annoying, but it has to be done in order to avoid permanent hematomas, and has no effects on a correctly performed surgery whatsoever.
This procedure involves a dissection and must be performed by an expert surgeon, in order to avoid nervous lesions that could modify facial expressions or arterial lesions that could seriously damage the skin within the "lifted" areas.
Patients who underwent this procedure are usually very satisfied with the great improvement of their face and neck appearance. If the procedure is performed correctly, it gives very natural results which have nothing to do with the typical "surgical" and excessively lifted effects ("windswept") that we see sometimes especially on tv, and if it's performed in a safe environment (Hospital operating rooms, Clinics and accredited Extended Care Facilities) and by qualified physicians (surgeon, assistant surgeon, surgical technologist, anaesthetist and operating room staff) there is no risk to run into the above mentioned complications as well as other major ones, as long as the patient follows thoroughly all the post-operative instructions given by the medical staff.

COSTS

Considering the high degree of responsibility that comes with this type of procedure, the number and the size of the areas to be treated, the wide range of prices asked by the different Extended Care Facilities (and the huge importance of performing the procedure in safe facilities), the fees for the anaesthetists and for the surgical and nursing staff, this procedure can cost from 5.000€ up to 15.000€.