3 Tips for Maintaining Surgery Results After a Facelift

There’s a lot of work that goes into your final appearance of the perfect facelift. A facelift is an invasive surgery that elevates and repositions the SMAS or (the deep soft tissue envelope that support facial structures). Facelifts are a gift to men and women everywhere because they often include a neck lift to round out the jawline features.

Once you’ve committed to your surgeon and decided to proceed with a facelift, you want to make sure you can maintain it. A facelift can make you look at least ten to fifteen years younger, so try to stay ahead of aging process. At Mansfield Cosmetic Surgery Center, Dr. Michael Thornton shares his top 3 tips for maintaining your surgical results after a facelift.

#1 Eat Healthy

Some may believe the myth that what you eat doesn’t have any affect on your skin? But here’s the truth about your diet—everything you eat and drink changes your skin! Food can directly affect your skin positively being rich in nutrients thus supporting robust collagen formation or they can affect your skin negatively by starving of nutrients, antioxidants, water, and protein building blocks. Therefore, everything you eat should be full of vitamins and minerals or packed with protein building amino acids. So what should you look for in the grocery aisles? Foods that are full of essential anti-oxidant vitamins like A, C, and E, need to be at the top of your list.

Each day your cells burn through energy and this metabolic process leaves behind extra oxygen molecules as a result. Oxidative toxicity is the worst thing that can happen to your skin, but when you stock up on these three vitamins (A, C and E), they act as antioxidants that cycle excess oxygen out of your cells, so they’re resistant to aging. To retain hydrated and repositioned tissues that make your face appear younger after a facelift, eating healthy will improve blood flow and nutrient uptake throughout your tissues.

#2 Protect Your Skin from the Sun

The tanning process ruins your skin! Period. Every dermatologist and cosmetic plastic surgeon will tell you that if you want to retain a rejuvenated look after a facelift, tanning will only make your skin worse. Therefore, your best defense is to avoid direct sunlight and to wear sunscreen every day. If you’re especially light skinned, sunlight and UV ray exposure will diminish collagen and elastin production.

#3 Don’t Smoke or Quit Smoking

Smokers have terrible skin and we see it everywhere in photo comparisons for people of similar ages. Smokers constantly have high levels of carbon dioxide blown into their skin that ruins any chance of viable vitamin function. When you smoke, you’re slowly killing your skin cells by cutting necessary oxygen and blood flow from the tissues and welcoming premature wrinkles. The gasses that blow into your face cause uneven skin tone, yellow coloring, and poor protein creation so you can forget about supportive scaffolding like collagen and elastin fibers. Don’t let smoking age you and ruin your facelift!

Call Mansfield Cosmetic Surgery Center today to schedule your appointment for facelift and neck lift at 817-477-9000.