Face Lift Surgery (Rhytidectomy) Pictures

Details: Ideal Anatomy for Post-tragal incision. Close-up of Incision, Left Side View, Before Facelift (left), 9 months After Facelift (right). This patient has the perfect anatomy and skin to have a post-tragal incision. The first factor that is going for her is that her ear cartilage is very flat and does not protrude out from the side of her face much more than 10-20 degrees. The second factor is that the natural wrinkle that she has in front of her ear lobe extends vertically down from the opening of the ear, in comparison to having a wrinkle a few eighths of an inch in front of the ear cartilage. The last factor in my experience is the quality of her skin in front of her ear. She is very fair with minimal pores and a fine peach fuzz type of hair in the skin in front of the ear. When this skin is wrapped over the ear cartilage, it replicates the original skin on the ear cartilage very well.

Details: Ideal Anatomy for Post-tragal incision. Close-up of Incision, Left Oblique View, Before Facelift (left), 9 months After Facelift (right). On this angled view, looking at the pre-operative view, she does not have any obvious wrinkle in front of her ear cartilage, nor is there a highlight or transition from the facial skin to the ear cartilage skin. In the following, example you will see how this comes into play when I decide which type of incision is better.

Details: Unfavorable Anatomy for Post-tragal incision. Close-up of Incision, Left Oblique View, Before Facelift (left), 6 months After Facelift (right). After a long discussion with this patient, although her anatomy was not ideal for this type of incision, this was the type of incision on another patient of mine that she met in person. Since on that patient her incision was imperceptible, she insisted on having a post-tragal incision. I will be using her close-ups as an example of when I would prefer to perform a pre-tragal incision. ____________________________________________________________________. Note on this angled view of the right ear before surgery, she has a crease that extends half way up in front of her ear cartilage. In my observations of people, I would say that a majority or people have a natural crease or wrinkle that is in front of the ear cartilage, and more so as they get older. The second point on her before photo that is clearer on the set of photos below is that she has dark hair an large pores on the skin in front of her ear. On the after photos that you see on the right, you can see that the shap of the ear cartilage changed and the wrinkle that was previously in front of the ear now extends directly down from the opening of the ear. It may look good to you, but I personally want to reproduce the exact appearance of the ear that the patient had before their facelift.

Details: Unfavorable Anatomy for Post-tragal incision. Close-up of Incision, Left Oblique View, Before Facelift (left), 6 months After Facelift (right). This is the same patient on a direct side view of her left ear. You can now see more clearly the loss of the wrinkle in front of the ear cartilage. Also, note that the skin of the ear, has few if any pores, and in normally has a very fine peach fuzz on the natural ear skin. By placing the incision on the side of the ear cartilage you can see large pores and darker facial skin on the ear cartilage. I think that you would agree that this patient's before and after does not match up as well as the example shown above. This is also the same reason male facelift incisions are placed in front of the ear cartilage so that they won't need to shave onto ther ears.