At Smith Cosmetic Surgery & Medical Aesthetic Center, Dr. Cory Bovenzi uses facelifts to help Denver patients achieve natural-looking and long-lasting facial rejuvenation. Also called a rhytidectomy, a facelift is the perfect option for patients who want to address signs of facial aging.
To schedule a personalized facelift consultation with Dr. Bovenzi, please contact us today to arrange your appointment. Our Denver facial plastic surgery clinic is near Centennial Airport, and the scenic Cherry Creek State Park.
A facelift tightens and lifts underlying facial tissues to reduce drooping and wrinkles, resulting in a more youthful appearance.
At the start of a facelift, anesthesia is administered. Next, Dr. Bovenzi creates incisions near the ear. These precise incisions often start in the hair above the ear and curve around the ear’s natural contours. These contours offer natural camouflage, ensuring nicely hidden post-surgical marks.
Dr. Bovenzi then adjusts the underlying facial structures as needed, then closes the incisions with sutures. Finally, he dresses the incisions as needed. Dr. Bovenzi’s techniques allow him to avoid the use of surgical drains, resulting in a more comfortable recovery process.
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At Smith Cosmetic Surgery & Medical Aesthetic Center, Dr. Bovenzi can perform any modern facelift technique. Each technique offers its own aesthetic benefits, incision pattern, degree of invasiveness, and recovery process. The ideal type for each patient is based on their needs and goals.
Full Facelifts (also called full facelifts) treat the midface, lower face, and neck. They’re best for moderate and severe facial aging. Incisions typically go around the ear.
Midface lifts concentrate specifically on the midface/cheeks. This makes them an especially popular choice for patients who have midface wrinkles and drooping but don’t have any lower-face aging issues.
Lower facelifts treat jawline and neck sagging, along with jowls. Typically, incisions are created around the ears and sometimes beneath the chin, and tightening is performed through these incisions.
Mini facelifts, also called mini cheek and neck lifts, elevate the tissues of the lower face and neck. They offer subtler results and reduced downtime compared to full facelifts. They can involve liposuction, dissection of skin and fat away from the underlying muscles, and muscle repositioning.
Mini lower face and neck lifts focus on the lower face and neck using smaller incisions. Dr. Bovenzi has pioneered this technique, which offers reduced invasiveness and shorter healing time.
SMAS facelifts lift from the face’s superficial musculoaponeurotic system (SMAS) layer. This fibromuscular network of facial tissues is found beneath the skin layers and the fat layer. By lifting the SMAS, fat, and skin layers as a single unit, these facelifts create much more natural and longer-lasting results than traditional facelifts, which focused specifically on lifting the skin.
Deep plane facelifts are quite popular with Dr. Bovenzi’s patients, since they provide the most natural-looking and longest-lasting results. They rejuvenate the midface and the lower face, including the jawline, chin, and neck. They lift from the tissues beneath the SMAS, called the deep plane. Before lifting, Dr. Bovenzi releases various neck, jaw, and cheek ligaments.
Revision facelifts are performed after a patient’s first, or primary, facelift. These secondary facelifts can be used to address unsatisfactory results or to correct new signs of aging that have formed over time. Revision facelifts can also address prominent scarring caused by a previous facelift.
If you’re interested in a facelift, you’ve most likely seen a lot of names for various types of facelifts. These might have included names like the short-scar facelift, the Z-Lift, and the S-Lift. It can all be extremely confusing.
The reality is that facelift techniques haven’t changed dramatically over the years, but naming conventions have. This tends to be more of a marketing choice rather than an indicator of specific differences between techniques.
Many of the techniques are common vernacular, but as Dr. Bovenzi puts it, “No two faces are the same, and so even one person’s mini versus the next person’s mini is going to be a little bit different.”
You may have even seen surgeons offering specially branded versions of facelifts. According to Dr. Bovenzi, “Many surgeons brand their own version of a facelift, but often, the actual surgical approach isn’t very different.”
Dr. Bovenzi helps Denver patients cut through the marketing noise and focus on results. Instead of confusing his patients with branded facelifts, he discusses the nuances of the procedure as they apply to each individual patient. He custom-tailors his facelifts to each patient’s unique anatomy, ensuring that they achieve the results they’ve been searching for while minimizing recovery time.
In a general sense, the full facelift addresses the midface, jawline, and neck, while the mini facelift utilizes smaller incisions and is ideal for early aging. A full facelift is more invasive and achieves greater changes, while a mini facelift is less invasive and achieves subtler changes.
For Dr. Bovenzi, the degree of tissue dissection required determines whether he considers a procedure to be a full facelift or a mini facelift.
An older patient, a patient who hasn’t received other facial treatments, or a patient with a severe turkey-wattle neck would be more of a candidate for a full facelift, since they would require more tissue dissection.
A younger patient or a patient who requires subtler changes is more of a candidate for a mini facelift. These patients require less extensive dissection.
Dr. Bovenzi performs both the full facelift and the mini facelift for Denver patients using the deep plane facelift technique.
Deep plane facelifts are quite popular with Dr. Bovenzi’s patients, since they provide the most natural-looking and longest-lasting results. Dr. Bovenzi has a great deal of training with this technique, and he is able to perform it with a high degree of surgical precision. Dr. Bovenzi utilizes this lifting technique with almost all of his facelift procedures in Denver.
This technique involves lifting from the tissues beneath the SMAS, called the deep plane. Before lifting, Dr. Bovenzi releases various neck, jaw, and cheek ligaments. The result is a rejuvenated midface and lower face, including the jawline, chin, and neck. Cheek definition is improved, and less skin tension is created compared to more traditional facelifts.
A preservation facelift is a term that surgeons that surgeons began using fairly recently. While other facelifts separate the skin from the muscle in several areas, this approach confines this to a smaller area.
Preserving the skin’s connection with the muscle tissue as much as possible helps maintain the face’s natural movement. It also maintains the natural tissue relationship and preserves the blood supply.
This in turn minimizes trauma and reduces post-surgical swelling, ensuring that patients can enjoy a smoother healing process. Additionally, it decreases the likelihood of the formation of issues like seromas (collected fluid) and telangiectasias (spider vein).
Dr. Bovenzi adapts his preservation facelift technique to each patient’s anatomy. This ensures subtle, elegant results for Denver patients.
Good candidates for a facelift from Dr. Bovenzi are looking for a way to correct age signs in the midface, lower face, and neck. Excellent candidates are patients with:
Non-smokers are ideal candidates for facelifts, since smokers’ reduced skin health creates an increased risk of complications during and after surgery. If you smoke, you’ll need to quit for at least two weeks before your facelift, and you’ll need to avoid smoking during recovery.
Rhytidectomy patients must be in good overall health, and the best candidates don’t have any pre-existing health conditions that could increase the chance of complications. Patients must not be prone to developing keloid scars. Pregnant or breastfeeding patients must postpone the date of their facelift.
If you have facial wrinkles but don’t have skin laxity, Dr. Bovenzi may recommend a non-invasive or minimally invasive med spa treatment instead of a facelift. Options like fillers, neuromodulators, microneedling, and laser skin resurfacing are the perfect solution to skin issues like superficial, moderate, or harsh wrinkles, roughness, and hyperpigmentation.
The ideal way to find out if you’re a good facelift candidate is by meeting with Dr. Bovenzi for a consultation. Our office isn’t far from spots like Coors Field, the Denver Art Museum, and the Holly Park Pool and Tennis Center.
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Double-board-certified facial plastic surgeon Dr. Cory D. Bovenzi’s vast experience makes him the best choice for your facelift in Denver. He performs more high-quality facelifts in a month than most other plastic surgeons do in a full year. He has performed over 5,000 facial plastic surgery procedures, and he performs facelifts three to five times a week.
Dr. Brent J. Smith, the founder of Smith Cosmetic Surgery & Medical Aesthetic Center, found him to be so skilled that he trusted Dr. Bovenzi with his own facelift. Only six days after Dr. Smith’s procedure, his wife’s friend said that his retirement looked like it was going well, since it seemed like he was getting younger and younger-looking. She didn’t realize that he had undergone any sort of plastic surgery, since his results looked so incredibly natural.
Dr. Bovenzi performs facelifts and other facial plastic surgery procedures at our facility’s AAAHC-accredited ambulatory suite, which features the latest in cutting-edge medical technology. Our discreet Denver facility is at 5161 E. Arapahoe Rd., STE 350, Centennial, CO 80122, near Highlands Ranch Mansion and Historic Park, the Denver Zoo, and the Littleton Museum.
Dr. Bovenzi has shared his facelift knowledge with surgeons across America and at numerous medical conferences, and he has authored several medical journal articles. He has surgical privileges at Littleton Adventist Hospital and at Denver’s Porter Adventist Hospital.
Before becoming a facial plastic surgeon, he attended Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson Hospital. He graduated in the top 1% of his class, earning his Doctorate. Next, Dr. Bovenzi pursued an otolaryngology—head and neck surgery residency at Thomas Jefferson Hospital, followed by a facial plastic and reconstructive surgery fellowship at the Emory University School of Medicine.
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The cost of each Denver patient’s facelift is determined based on the details of their case. Anesthesia fees can play a role in determining the overall price, as can the techniques Dr. Bovenzi employs and the total time needed to perform the surgery.
Facelift consultations with Dr. Bovenzi are held at our Denver facility. We’re a short drive from a number of coffee shops, such as Little Owl, The Molecule Effect, Queen City Collective Coffee, Rivers and Roads, The Weathervane Cafe, and Huckleberry Roasters.
The consultation is the patient’s opportunity to go over their expectations and goals with an experienced and knowledgeable double board-certified facial plastic surgeon. Dr. Bovenzi will be happy to answer questions and offer guidance, working with the patient to help them achieve their optimal facelift results.
Dr. Bovenzi will examine the patient’s face and neck. He will ask questions about their medical history, including any pre-existing conditions, allergies, past procedures, and current medications.
Next, he will go over facelift technique options and recommend the best one for the patient’s goals. He will talk about the steps of the procedure from start to finish, including preparation and aftercare steps.
Many patients prefer to combine their facelift with other facial plastic surgery procedures, resulting in comprehensive revitalization. Dr. Bovenzi frequently pairs neck lifts, brow lifts, and eyelid lifts with facelifts. If you’re interested in pairing facial procedures, you can discuss your options during your consultation.
Dr. Bovenzi may also recommend including non-surgical treatments with your facelift to improve overall rejuvenation. This combination of surgical and non-surgical techniques is often the best way for patients to achieve ideal results.
Once the consultation with Dr. Bovenzi is complete, the patient will meet with a patient coordinator to schedule a date for their facelift surgery. They will also be able to discuss pricing and financing options.
Dr. Bovenzi’s unique incision design sets him apart from other surgeons. His facelift incisions follow the natural curves of the ear and hairline, ensuring minimal scarring.
Many surgeons prefer to go along the hair tuft in the highest part of the incision (in the supra-auricular area). When people wear their hair back or wear it up, the incision is more visible. This is also the case for people with short hair.
Dr. Bovenzi instead prefers to make the incision straight up into the hair. This hides the incision much more effectively. The nurse braids the hair to keep it out of the way during the facelift procedure, which helps to avoid any need for cutting or shaving hair before the surgery.
This attention to detail regarding incisions is yet another example of Dr. Bovenzi’s advanced level of artistry and skill. His techniques ensure that after a facelift, patients look refreshed, not operated on.
Dr. Bovenzi’s high degree of skill and precision ensures a relatively comfortable facelift recovery process. He minimizes tissue trauma whenever possible while creating incredibly natural-looking high-quality results. Recovery is further enhanced by Dr. Bovenzi’s personalized recovery protocol.
Dr. Bovenzi employs numerous techniques to minimize the degree of post-surgical bruising, swelling, numbness, and soreness. These techniques help patients feel ready to get back to their everyday activities sooner.
He uses tranexamic acid (TXA) and a local numbing injection, along with ARTISS, a fiber and tissue sealant. These reduce bruising, bleeding, swelling, and the likelihood of seroma formation. At the end of the facelift procedure, he meticulously checks to ensure that there isn’t blood collected under the surface of the skin.
To further reduce post-surgical bruising, Dr. Bovenzi gives patients support supplements like arnica and bromelain to be taken before and after their facelift.
Dr. Bovenzi’s hyperbaric oxygen therapy protocol also encourages the healing process. These treatments are performed for the first five weekdays after the rhytidectomy procedure.
To help bruising and swelling decrease, keep your head elevated at all times, including overnight, and apply ice packs as directed. Soreness can be addressed with over-the-counter or prescribed pain medication.
All of these measures, combined with keeping your blood pressure well-controlled and avoiding heavy exercise, will increase the chance of returning to social activities within 10 to 14 days.
You may experience temporary jaw tightness at the start of facelift recovery due to the tightening of the underlying muscles. Many patients prefer to stick to a soft-food diet for the sake of comfort.
Surgical dressings will be in place after your facelift; these will likely be removed during a follow-up the day after your surgery. In some cases, a light, removable ACE wrap dressing may be in place for the first week.
During your facelift recovery period, you’ll need to sleep on your back. Sleeping on your side or your stomach can put pressure on the incisions, impairing the healing process and potentially affecting your results. In many cases, patients can benefit from sleeping upright in a chair or recliner.
You’ll need to stay home from work until cleared to resume your job. The exact amount of time will vary depending on the nature of your job and the type of facelift performed. You’ll also need to avoid physically taxing activities like heavy exercise and sports for several weeks; this helps prevent bleeding and causing trauma to your incisions.
Follow-up appointments will be arranged with Dr. Bovenzi at our facility, located near the Denver Botanic Gardens and the South Suburban Golf Course. The doctor will remove sutures, examine your incisions, recommend ways to address any complications, and clear you to get back to certain physical activities.
Once the initial facelift healing period is complete, you’ll need to take care of post-surgical marks. This means practicing proper scar care as directed and avoiding prolonged sun exposure. Dr. Bovenzi designs all facelift incisions to heal incredibly well and blend in with natural facial contours.
Ready to find out which type of facelift is right for you? Contact Smith Cosmetic Surgery & Medical Aesthetic Center for a consultation at our clinic! For out-of-town patients, we’re located near several quality hotels, including the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center, the Denver Marriott Tech Center, the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Denver Tech Center, and The Inverness Denver.
There isn’t a single best age for a facelift—both younger and older patients can benefit from rhytidectomy surgery. Patients are typically in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, but younger and older patients can also be excellent candidates. Generally, the best time to consider a facelift is whenever you’re feeling unhappy about sagging facial skin and age lines.
While results vary, generally, a facelift can take ten to fifteen years off of a person’s appearance. While the tissue changes made during a facelift are permanent, the tissues will still experience sagging as the aging process continues. Because of this, proper skincare is vital to help extend facelift results. In some cases, patients come in for another facelift after ten to fifteen years have passed, refreshing their results.
The best way to ensure that your facelift fits with your budget is by financing it with the help of a company like CareCredit. This trusted medical financing company offers a six-month zero-percent repayment plan, along with a variety of other payment plans designed to fit patients’ needs.
The amount of time a facelift’s results last varies from person to person. Generally, rhytidectomy results last from seven to 10 years.
The duration of a patient’s results can be influenced by a wide variety of factors. Facelift results tend to last longer for patients whose skin is more elastic when they undergo the procedure. Younger patients tend to have more collagen and elastin protein in their skin tissues, meaning their skin is more elastic.
Because of this, patients in their 50s usually have longer-lasting facelift results than patients in their 70s. Older patients tend to experience new signs of aging sooner.
Sun exposure affects how long a person’s facelift results last. Prolonged sun exposure means prolonged exposure to UV rays, which break down collagen and elastin, reducing skin elasticity. To extend results, make sure to apply a 30+ SPF sunscreen regularly and wear clothing that protects your skin from the sun, especially during the first year after your facelift.
Maintaining a personalized skincare regimen is important for preserving your facelift results. Apply topical retinoids regularly, along with moisturizers, antioxidant serums, and other cosmeceuticals, such as SkinMedica products.
Healthy sleep habits lead to longer-lasting rhytidectomy results. Sleeping on your side can result in accelerated facial volume loss, and poor sleep can cause formation of new signs of aging.
Lifestyle habits like smoking and alcohol consumption can negatively affect a facelift’s longevity. These reduce blood circulation to the skin, leading to poor skin health and premature aging.
Major weight changes can result in increased skin laxity, affecting the results of your facelift. Maintaining your weight and avoiding fluctuations can help preserve your results.
Avoiding stress can also make a big difference for facelift results. Chronic stress can cause premature aging, and repeated micro-expressions can lead to the formation of fine wrinkles.
Several factors that affect the duration of rhytidectomy results can’t be avoided. These include the changes that accompany menopause. Hormone-level fluctuations can cause the skin of the face to become thinner and result in facial-volume changes. A decrease in bone density can also play a role.
This is a common question for patients, since it’s easy to assume that a deep plane facelift and a mini facelift are different types of facelift. However, this could not be further from the truth.
Instead, these terms are descriptors of different facelift characteristics. A deep plane facelift is categorized based on where it lifts from. It lifts from the muscles below the SMAS layer, while a SMAS facelift lifts from the SMAS layer itself. A traditional facelift lifts the skin.
A mini facelift can involve lifting from any of these tissue layers, as can a full facelift. In the vast majority of cases, whenever Dr. Bovenzi performs a mini facelift, it is a deep plane mini facelift.
For almost all facelift patients, a deep plane facelift is the ideal option, since Dr. Bovenzi usually considers it the best layer to lift from. The only exception is when a patient has already had multiple revision facelifts and their SMAS tissue isn’t strong enough to hold the suture as well with dissection. However, this is a very rare circumstance.
Whether a mini facelift is better than a full facelift, on the other hand, is more of a question that varies from patient to patient based on their anatomy and cosmetic goals.
The best alternative to a facelift depends on the patient’s aesthetic goals, along with their specific cosmetic issues.
At Smith Cosmetic Surgery & Medical Aesthetic Center, we offer a wide variety of med spa treatments. Each of these utilizes different modalities to achieve different types of facial rejuvenation. While the results of these treatments will not last as long as those of a surgical facelift, they still create effective and natural-looking facial rejuvenation.
Generally, the best non-surgical alternative to a facelift would be the non-surgical facelift, also known as the liquid facelift. During this minimally invasive procedure, dermal fillers and neuromodulators are injected into various areas of the face.
The dermal fillers create instant volume, addressing depressions in the jawline, temples, and cheeks, along with moderate and harsh facial wrinkles. The neuromodulators relax the facial muscles, addressing fine age lines like crow’s feet.
We offer a variety of soft-tissue dermal fillers, including Juvederm fillers, Restylane fillers, Revanesse Versa, Radiesse, Sculptra, Perlane, and Belotero. In terms of neuromodulators, we offer Botox and Dysport.
Outside of injectables, we also perform fractional CO2 laser skin resurfacing. This option applies laser energy to the skin tissues, reducing wrinkles and creases while tightening drooping skin on the face and neck.
Microneedling can also address lax skin and facial wrinkles. This treatment involves insertion of fine microneedles into the targeted areas, stimulating the skin tissues’ natural healing response. New collagen and elastin protein is created at an advanced rate, resulting in a reduction in wrinkles and tightening of sagging facial skin.
PRP can be included in this treatment for further facial rejuvenation. PRP (platelet-rich plasma) is created using the patient’s own blood. This substance is rich in growth factors, triggering further skin tightening and wrinkle reduction.
Red light therapy treats shallow facial wrinkles and skin laxity by applying red light to the skin tissues. This process boosts cellular function.
For patients specifically interested in addressing fine wrinkles, we also perform chemical peels like the VI Peel, IPL Photofacial treatments, HydroFacials using the Hydro Wand, and microdermabrasion.
Chemical peels gradually remove skin layers using a chemical solution. These dead and damaged skin layers are replaced with fresh new skin cells and wrinkle-free skin.
An IPL Photofacial treatment applies pulses of intense light to the area. This encourages the skin’s healing process, boosting collagen and elastin protein creation while triggering the creation of new skin cells.
HydroFacials exfoliate the skin using water pressure and vacuum pressure. This exfoliation process removes skin cells and encourages skin-cell turnover.
Microdermabrasion treatment exfoliates the skin with the help of a diamond-tipped wand. When performed before a chemical peel, this process can further improve its revitalizing results.
