The Deep-Plane Facelift: What’s In A Name?

“What’s in a name?” asks Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet.

“That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Yet quite a few people don’t appear to buy into this idea.

I am talking about this great facelift technique which produces wonderful outcomes for our patients. Yet, its name—the deep plane facelift—seems to scare off a lot of people, before they even show up at a surgeon’s office.

You can read more about this technique in a post I wrote last month also about the deep-plane facelift in Hollywood.

And I am not the only one who is aware of this. Others, like my American colleague, Dr Neil Gordon and a number of other facial plastic surgeons have experienced the same thing when it comes to the deep plane facelift.

Neil Gordon, who is as passionate about this technique as I am, because we have seen its huge potential, offers an explanation:

“People believe—probably as a result of its name—that the deep-plane facelift is major surgery. They imagine it requires a long recovery period. But in reality it is far less painful and requires much less time for healing than other face lifts, because the technique tightens soft tissues deeper than the SMAS and skin layer and involves no pulling of the skin.”

For someone willing to overlook its name, the deep plane facelift has much to offer: superior results, long lasting effects, all without the telltale signs of having had a facelift. It is suitable for younger people as well as the much older, typical facelift candidate.

Because the technique causes little disturbance near the skin, it creates few complications and leads to fast healing. This is one reason why it is popular among celebrities.

The comparatively high cost can be a downside for some people. It is true that surgeons—me included—charge more for a deep plane facelift than for a standard SMAS facelift. This is because the technique requires great surgical skill and experience, and only a select few surgeons around the world possess the training needed to deliver successful outcomes.

When it comes to costs, I tell my patients to weigh the cost difference against the longer lasting results. You will inevitably spend even more in injectable treatments and more than one SMAS facelift over the next 10 years compared to the deep-plane, which you will only need once.

The deep plane technique is very effective in lifting the mid-face area, something other techniques, even at their best, cannot achieve. For those who need work on the mid face, this is the only wise choice.

It is also useful for people who are undergoing their second facelift. In all likelihood, their first procedure was a skin-only or a SMAS facelift. By going below those layers, we can effectively reposition the deeper tissues, erasing the more obvious signs of ageing and the deterioration that has occurred after the initial facelift.

I prefer this technique for facelifts above all others because it has produced superior results for me as long as I have been performing it.

I’d recommend it to anyone who wants a natural-looking appearance without telltale signs of a facelift.