A full/ SMAS facelift is a type of facelift that involves making adjustments in the deeper layers of the facial anatomy. Instead of simply trimming away excess facial skin, Dr. Chiodo accesses and manipulates the underlying superficial muscular aponeurotic system (SMAS), ensuring superior and more dramatic results. Unlike a traditional facelift, the surgeon also tightens the muscles lying deep underneath the skin, making your skin look firm, contoured, and youthful.
Full/SMAS Facelift
Goals of SMAS Facelift Include:
- Make facial skin look firm, tight, and youthful
- Reduce facial wrinkles, creases, and folds
- Reduce midface sagging
- Correct sagging jowls
- Elevate facial contours and structure
- Make the jawline look firm and chiseled
- Enhance the contours of the neck
- Correct an unwanted double chin
How SMAS Facelift Works
The SMAS is a layer of muscles deep within the facial skin, responsible for adding structure to your face. As you grow older, the muscles weaken and lose elasticity, leading to sagging skin, jowls, nasolabial folds, and a double chin. During the SMAS facelift, the surgeon makes strategic incisions to separate the skin from the underlying layers, remove excess skin tissues, suction away excess fat deposits, and tighten the underlying SMAS muscles with sutures, thus reversing the effects of age on your face.
Candidates for SMAS Facelift:
- Have moderate to severe facial sagging
- Want to achieve dramatic results
- Have fairly good skin elasticity
- Are in good physical and mental health
- Have realistic expectations from the procedure
- Are nonsmokers or willing to stop smoking before and after the procedure
- Can take around two weeks off work and other responsibilities to recover
Dr. Chiodo’s Personalized SMAS Facelift Technique
Dr. Chiodo performs highly personalized SMAS facelifts after a thorough evaluation. He discusses your goals and expectations, examines your facial anatomy and structure, reviews your health history, and measures the degree of skin laxity. After a thorough consultation, he creates a treatment map on your face, discusses your treatment options, and recommends the ideal surgical technique for your unique condition and goals. An SMAS facelift is the most comprehensive and dramatic facelift, so it’s only meant for patients with moderate or severe signs of aging.
Dr. Chiodo performs a SMAS facelift in a cutting-edge operating room under general anesthesia. He makes an incision on the temple, extends it downward along the hairline, and curves it behind the ears. After lifting your skin, he makes the necessary adjustments — he trims away excess skin to reduce laxity, removes excess fat deposits, and tightens the SMAS layer deep underneath the skin. Your skin is finally re-draped in place and sutured, following which surgical dressings and drainage tubes are placed.
Recovery After SMAS Facelift
After an SMAS facelift, you can expect considerable swelling, bruising, tenderness, numbness, and discomfort for up to 2 weeks, following which the side effects will gradually dissipate. The sutures are removed within one week, and you can resume most of your daily activities after two weeks. But you must avoid strenuous workouts and physical activities for up to six weeks. Since the incisions are made along the natural contours of your skin, they’re mostly invisible.
Schedule an Appointment
Dr. Michael Chiodo is a highly-skilled and fellowship-trained facial plastic surgeon specializing in cutting-edge surgical techniques. He carefully assesses your facial anatomy and discusses your goals to curate the most effective treatment plans. He also ensures you feel emotionally comfortable throughout the surgical process. To that end, he provides his personal number to all of his patients and their significant others — you have a direct line of communication with him. Please schedule an appointment to explore your SMAS facelift options.
