FACELIFT (Meloplasty)

A chemical peel causes a controlled chemical injury to the skin. This then promotes the skin cells and collagen to re-model during healing which helps with blemishes, skin tone and fine wrinkles.

A chemical peel is added with a Facelift to treat the skin.

All procedures have risks. We can assure you as a specialist Plastic Surgeon Dr Jack Zoumaras will go through all the possible risks. Your procedure will be done in an accredited hospital and with an accredited anaesthetist and you will stay overnight. Any issues that may arise, although rare, can be managed with by Dr Jack Zoumaras. Overall a Facelift is safe and carries risks that are between 1-4% (based on 10 years of self audit).

A facelift will last between 7-15 years depending on the type of lift you have and how you look after your skin and health. The reason why it does not last forever is because you will still age after the surgery.

A modern facelift lifts the anatomical changes that have occured to the ligament, muscle, fat and skin (Layers 1-4). You will have fewer rhtyids or wrinkles and the jowl and lower eyelid hollowing and rhtyids in the neck will be less. The changes are anatomical and will not look pulled.

A facelift by Face Specialist Plastic Surgeon Dr Jack Zoumaras will not make you look fake. Having a deep understanding of the anatomy of the ageing process through experience and training (over 10 years) will ensure you will not have a “pulled” look or “windswept” look. Part of the reason is because the muscle and ligaments are lifted and skin is used as a covering and it is not stretched.

A Facelift will feel tight, but is not a painful procedure. Your comfort levels will be monitored for the first 24 -72 hours after surgery and once you are home, it is expected that simple paracetamol will be enough to manage your comfort levels.

This depends on what type of work that you do.

It is advised that you can return at the earliest at 14 days. Most of our patients take between 3-4 weeks off work to ensure all evidence of Plastic Surgery can be hidden. That being said we have had some patients who are self employed, and have returned to work after 10 days.

You can wear makeup on your face once the sutures come out and the wound is healed (between 7-10 days).

Your hair will be washed immediately after your Facelift. Following this we encourage you to wash your hair on Day 3. Most of our patients prefer to wait until Day 5 when the drains are removed.

Following your surgery, the use of surgical drains for the first 5 days will ensure bruising is minimised. For the first week we use our LED light multiple times to improve blood flow to your face and expedite the healing. We recommend the avoidance of alcohol at least 2 weeks prior to surgery, low salt diet and diet high in fibre and green leafy vegetables.

During the surgery a no touch bi manual retraction technique is used to minimise dermal bruising on the skin.

Bruising is expected for the first 7 days. In fact most bruising will begin to appear after Day 2 and peak at Day 5. The bruising will begin to settle significantly over the next 10 days. You will still have residual bruising between week 2 and 3.

After 7 days you can go out for a walk and then lightly jog after 2 weeks. Between 2-6 weeks, light activity can be undertaken on an individual basis. It is expected that you can return to normal physical activity after 8 weeks.

You go for short walks after 7 days followed by jogging at 2-3 weeks. By 4 weeks you can do light physical activity. It is expected that you can resume normal gym activity at two months.

The immediate downtime for a Facelift is 10 days, and it is expected that you can take up to 3-4 weeks to recover. Many of our patients take one month off before returning to work or social activities. Each individual varies and we have had patients fly internationally and return to work after 10 days.

A Facelift is a procedure that requires a one night stay in the hospital. You will then be asked to rest at home and attend our clinic over the next 10-14 days to attend to dressings and receive LED light treatment (to aid in healing). The downtime is up to 4 weeks.

Dr Jack Zoumaras has dedicated his Plastic Surgery profession to surgery on the Face as this was his area of interest since the start of his internship as a doctor. Further to this he has been inspired through his work in the best facelift centres around the world from San Francisco to New York and Paris, where he learned from the best. Dr Jack Zoumaras has been invited by his peers to teach on Facelift anatomy and to present to other Plastic Surgeons on the international stage. Dr Jack Zoumaras is a peer reviewed Facelift surgeon, educator and author on Facelift surgery.

Yes. A Facelift will lift the anatomical jowls and this will indirectly improve the jawline as the two are associated. Lifting of the facial skin will also affect the lateral neck-line skin in the neck. So the answer is yes it will lift the neck, but cannot lift it to the same extent as a neck lift would.

The anatomy of the ageing face applies to the neck as the layers are continuous. A neck lift is complementary to a facelift but it does not need to be done at the same time. This is a personal choice based on the outcome you want and the financial investment you want to make. From an operative point of view it will take an additional 90 minutes and you will have a slightly longer incision. Our recommendation is to perform a Face and Neck Lift at the same time (Meloplasty and Platysmaplasty).

A traditional Facelift lifts the muscle (SMAS) in order to correct facial ageing changes, such as anatomical jowling and marionette lines. This SMAS lift occurs at the cheek level.

The High SMAS facelift lifts the muscle higher than the anatomical cheek. The High SMAS Facelift is designed to lift the SMAS as high as the orbital rim (Lower Eyelid area) and detaches the underlying ligaments to lift the lower eyelid, mid face, cheek, jowl and neck area. A High SMAS is an advanced facelift technique that is offered by Dr Jack Zoumaras (Trained and experienced in this technique on fellwoship in the USA and through 10 years plus of surgical experience).

The SMAS is the superficial muscolo-aponeurtoic system of the face (Layer 3).

The SMAS is responsible for all facial expressions, animations and functions such as opening and closing the eye and mouth. The SMAS is suspended to the underlying bone with facial ligaments and when these structures weaken and fall, you get signs of ageing such as lower eyelid hollowing and jowls.

A PonyTail Facelift is a cutting edge procedure offered by Dr Jack Zoumaras at Artiste Plastic Surgery. A PonyTail facelift will lift your eyebrow, eyelid area and upper cheek to seek a certain look. Through radial incisions in the hairline; the brow, upper eyelid and cheek are lifted. In much the same way that you place your hair in a PonyTail and lift the upper part of the face a Pony Tail lift will do this on a permanent basis. The Pony Tail lift is suitable for patients between the ages of 25 to 45.

Everybody would love to know the cost of a Facelift before embarking on the surgery but this is difficult much like it is to get a quote on renovating your kitchen without a builder or designer measuring the dimensions of your kitchen and then asking what appliances and materials that you would like. For a Facelift the many variables include assessment of cheek, neck area, jowls, naso-labial fold, eye area and brow. This assessment is then combined with what you want done with your face and what are the areas that you most to treat.

Dr Jack Zoumaras is a Specialist Plastic Surgeon, and a peer reviewed facelift surgeon.  He has trained internationally, in New York and Paris, by Facelift surgeons in the world. Having technical understanding of the anatomy of the ageing process, takes years of training and experience, and it is this, combined with Surgical expereince.

Dr Jack Zoumaras offers three options for your face. The guideline investment for a facelift varies between $32-50k for the surgical fee alone. Hospital and anaesthetic fees are in addition.

A PonyTail Facelift starts from around $20k.

It is common for patients to combine other treatments and surgeries with facelift surgery to work on other areas of the face that cannot be achieved through a facelift alone. Commonly combined procedures include a neck lift, blepharoplasty, brow lift, skin peels, and/or dermabrasion.

Not all patients have volume loss in the cheeks; some have more fat deposits in layer 2 and layer 4/5. Buccal fat removal can be done to remove the fat in layer 4/5. Through lifting the muscle (Layer 3) a facelift will narrow the lower face.

Dr Zoumaras has specialised facelift training. His education, technique, and experience of over 10 years as a specialist plastic surgeon in Facelift surgery. Dr Zoumaras devotes a whole day’s operating to your face. This includes lifting the changes that occur during the aging process (retaining ligament descent). This is generally accepted worldwide to produce results that don't look like you have had surgery.

Any patients with visible signs of anatomical aging such as rhytids or wrinkles, ptotic skin, jowls or volume loss are good candidates. This usually begins around 40 years of age and becomes more common among patients that are 50 or 60 years old.

All facelift surgeries are performed with the patient under general anesthesia.