After a certain age, our skin starts to sag around cheeks, chin, or neck area. Getting a face-lift could help tighten skin and eliminate harsh lines giving you an overall more youthful appearance. Face-lifts can be scary, especially if they look unnatural or too obvious.

Choosing to undergo a particular type of procedure is no small commitment, and there are many things to consider before making a decision.

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Geeta Grewal, Cosmetic Surgeon and Wellness Expert, 9Muses Wellness Clinic, Gurugram, tells IANSlife: “Face-lifts are ideal for addressing signs of ageing, tightening excess skin, lifting the corners of your mouth, and removing deep creases. As you age, bone density decreases, leaving you with thinning facial bones. Skin begins to droop on your face, leaving you with an aged appearance. Components of your skin like collagen and elastin also start to diminish, face-lifts work by reshaping the bottom half of the face and lifting the skin.”

Before you consider a face-lift, you should make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. A face-lift will not make you look like a different person, but rather it should give you a more rejuvenated and renewed appearance. Being happy with the results of your face-lift begins with having realistic expectations around the procedure. However, one should start taking good care of the skin in their early ages so that one doesn’t have to go under the knife.

What types of procedures are available and what should you expect? Grewal answers:

* Liquid Facelift: The liquid facelift uses injectable known as dermal fillers, along with Botox, to help plump up, relax, and fill in the appearance of facial lines and wrinkles. It can restore youthful volume to the face, reduce sagging of the skin by filling it up from the inside, and re-contour drooping facial features or hollow eyes. It is one of the latest anti-aging trends in non-invasive cosmetic procedures and is touted as a less expensive and less risky alternative to a traditional facelift. Soft tissue augmentation treatments last from three to 12 months.

* Radiofrequency (RF) therapy: Also called radiofrequency skin tightening, it is a non-surgical method of tightening your skin. The procedure involves using energy waves to heat the deep layer of your skin known as dermis. This heat stimulates the production of collagen. Collagen is the most common protein in your body. It creates the framework of your skin and gives your skin its firmness. The primary benefits of RF therapy are tightening your skin and getting rid of wrinkles. However, RF therapy may also help fight sun damage due to its ability stimulate the production of collagen.

* High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU): It is relatively a new cosmetic treatment for skin tightening that some consider a non-invasive and painless replacement for face lifts. It uses ultrasound energy to encourage the production of collagen, which results in firmer skin. Several small clinical trials have found HIFU to be safe and effective for facial lifting and refining wrinkles. People were able to see results in a few months after treatment, without the risks associated with surgery.

* Thread lift: Thread lift procedure is a minimally invasive alternative to facelift surgery. Thread lifts claim to tighten your skin by inserting medical-grade thread material into your face and then “pulling” your skin up by tightening the thread. Thread lifts are considered a low-risk procedure with minimal recovery time, but side effects of redness, bruising, and swellings do occur. This procedure, which can last till three years, can be performed in about 45 minutes, and, if you want to, you can go right back to work afterwards.

Aftercare and recovery

During surgeries, discomfort, bruising, and painful swelling following the procedure can be mitigated through the medication prescribed by the cosmetologist. The recovery time is also high. In minimal invasive post care involves moisturizer and sunscreen, informs the expert.

“These are the two important ingredients. The post recovery time is also minimum to nil. It has been seen that 90 per cent patients don’t need antibiotics or painkillers, few patients might need these medications. Post care plan is shared with patients. These are quick effective procedures with no downtime or no need to take off from work.”

What are some potential side effects and risks?

Grewal says: “A face-lift is a surgical procedure, and with it, there may come some issues. Cosmetologists are skilled in delivering optimal results with the face-lift procedure and will do everything to lessen the risk for side effects, which generally happens if it’s done by an inexperienced doctor.”

Though complications are infrequent, some risks of face-lift surgery can include:

* Bleeding

* Bruises burns

* Pain

* Foreign body granuloma

* Infection

* Scars

Patients whose symptoms become severe or persistent beyond a few days should seek immediate medical attention.