Beyond the Facelift: Procedures to Enhance Rhytidectomy

Devinder S. Mangat, MD Facial plastic surgeons are constantly striving to achieve better results for their patients who request facelift surgery. This issue of Facial Plastic Surgery has selected some of the leaders in facial rejuvenation surgery to discuss advances in rhytidectomy and adjunctive techniques to enhance facelift results. No longer a debate as to which is a better technique, we will present two proven (superficial muscular aponeurotic system and deep plane facelift) yet different approaches to rejuvenating the lower two-thirds of the face and neck. As we become more aware of skeletal and soft tissue changes that occur with the aging process and actinic damage, we have experts discussing ways to create an enhanced and more natural looking result by combining the primary facelift procedure with concomitant additional ancillary procedures. The years of combined experience of all the authors will provide a unique and diverse approach to aging face surgery, and at the same time, bring us current with the newest techniques. It is my hope that we will have a thorough discussion of this very important topic and in the process, offer our readers a variety of ways to enhance what was previously accepted as the classic facelift. I want to thank all my contributing colleagues for their effort in producing this very salient issue.