Facial rejuvenation: the role of skin retraction

RESUMO

We have been performing "refreshing" techniques for the past three years, offering an alternative to the classical facelift for facial rejuvenation. We can start treating some of our patients at an earlier age, and, as well, improve the aspect of faces that have been "over-stretched" by one or several rhytidoplasties. With these techniques we can improve the facial appearance of patients of all ages, using our technique of Superficial Syringe Liposculpture - SSL -(1) with fine cannulas to recontour the jaw line, injecting fat with fine needles in the naso-labial, malar and glabellar regions, postponing the first facelift, or complementing our older patients' facelift. "Refreshing" is not however, a technique giving the same results of rhytidoplasty, neither we advocate this operation to be abandoned. Refreshing is a gentle facial recontouring procedure and an adjunct to rhytidoplasty, a complement to other techniques. It is a way of looking at facial rejuvenation, without the rigid confines taught in our early years of plastic surgery. Instead, we can appreciate the wants of the patient, looking to improve the appearance with minimal morbidity through a simpler, faster procedure, other than the "cut and stretch" techniques. We can offer smaller procedures under local anesthesia, with no need for hospitalization, a major factor in the patients' consideration.