Our Most Popular Facial Plastic Surgery Procedures

Dr. Michael L. Thornton, a double-board certified cosmetic surgeon and Diplomate of the American Board of Cosmetic Surgery, has the surgical skills and experience to refresh your appearance with a face and neck lift, eyelid lift or brow lift. These three popular facial plastic surgery procedures, performed alone or in combination, can dramatically enhance your facial features and restore a more youthful look, without anyone knowing you’ve had anything done.

Face and Neck Lift

If you are frustrated with saggy, loose skin on your face and neck, Dr. Thornton can perform a face lift and neck lift to give your face a more youthful appearance. A face and neck lift:

• Eliminates sagging skin on your face and neck
• Tightens the skin along your jawline
• Lifts sagging jowls
• Removes vertical muscle bands (platysmal bands) on the neck
• Smooths wrinkles across the entire face and neck region

Dr. Thornton will strategically place small incisions along the hairline and behind your ears so that they are well hidden. Then he will carefully tighten and reposition the underlying deep tissues of your face. Finally, your skin is passively draped across your newly contoured face, the excess skin is removed and sutures are placed. The face lift and neck lift procedure takes approximately three to five hours for completion, depending on the complexity of the patient and if other procedures are being performed in addition to the face and neck lift.

Eyelid Lift / Blepharoplasty

An eyelid lift, also called blepharoplasty, can be performed on both the upper and lower eyelids to eliminate droopy eyelids or remove fat pockets to give the eyes a more youthful appearance.

• Upper blepharoplasty removes excess skin from the upper eyelid. Occasionally a strip of muscle or orbital fat is removed to enhance the shape of the upper eyelid. An upper eyelid lift eliminates sagging eyelids and opens up the eyes.
• Lower blepharoplasty removes excess fat that accumulates and protrudes from the lower eye socket. Occasionally a small strip of skin is removed below the lower eyelid along the lash line. Removing fat from the lower lid refreshes the eye region and eliminates the puffiness below the eye.

If only an upper eyelid lift is performed, it can be performed in our private procedure room with local anesthesia to numb the area. Dr. Thornton will make an incision along the natural fold of the eyelid, remove the excess skin and possibly muscle and fat, and then suture the incision.

The lower eyelid lift requires additional anesthesia; therefore, it is performed at Baylor Surgicare at Mansfield. An incision is made inside the eyelid conjunctiva or below the lower lash line. Dr. Thornton will remove the excess fat from the lower lid and adjust the underlying tissue.

Brow Lift / Forehead Lift

A brow lift or forehead lift focuses on the top third of the face, lifting the eyebrows, smoothing the forehead winkles and improving the appearance of the orbital region. There are various techniques to elevate the brow but Dr. Thornton mainly uses a subcutaneous trichophytic brow lift technique.

Local anesthesia and oral sedation are typically used for our brow lift procedures. However, sometimes general anesthesia is required. For each technique, incisions are strategically placed behind the hairline that minimizes damage to the hair follicles. Because of the precise placement of an irregular scar just behind the first 3-4 rows of hairs, it minimizes damage to the hair follicle and allows the hair to regrow through the scar making it virtually invisible.