Head and facial plastic surgery includes three of the top five plastic surgeries people request, and it’s no wonder. There’s absolutely no denying that appearance plays a major role in our day to day lives. Our faces are the first thing people see! The shape of our face, our eyes, our lips and smile - these are the things by which we are judged. Whether a person suffers from a birth defect like a cleft palate, general unhappiness with a certain feature, or the aging effects of gravity, smoking, sun exposure and genetics, putting your best face forward can sometimes involve some form of facial plastic surgery.

Plastic surgery for the face can help with numerous concerns ranging from the signs of premature aging such as crow’s feet and wrinkles, to more significant cosmetic concerns like weak chins and sagging necks.

Every face is unique and every patient has unique needs. Wrinkles in the brow, fat deposits under the eye, excess skin, at the jaw, and creases around the nose and mouth can all be helped by facial surgery. The face is usually divided into thirds; the upper third of the face involves the area from the eyes to the top of the brow, and includes brow lift and eyelid surgery, also known as blepharoplasty.

The middle third of the face concerns the nose, ears, cheeks and lower eye area. This includes options nose surgery or rhinoplasty, cheek implants to offer a fuller face and more attractive profile, and ear surgery or otoplasty, to correct misshapen or protruding ears.

The lower third of the face includes mouth, lips, the chin and the neck. The neck lift involves tightening muscles and removing excess skin from around the jaw and chin while liposuction can remove fat and help with sagging jowls.

In terms of facial plastic surgery, a face lift involves removing excess skin and fat, but does not help to remove wrinkles and other problems which can be corrected with other facial procedures like eyelid surgery and brow lifts, or with temporary wrinkle treatments such as botox. A consultation with a board-certified facial plastic surgeon will help a patient to determine which procedure will help them achieve the results they most desire. In many cases a patient will seek specific skin treatments to improve the skin surface, tone, color and overall appearance of the skin as well.

Facial surgery can help improve the over all appearance, shape and size of a specific facial feature, or turn back the clock on the signs of aging. And in general, face and head surgery can increase self-confidence, because for most people, looking better means feeling better. The cost, recovery time and risks of any plastic surgery can vary from procedure to procedure and person to person. Keep in mind that if you’re considering plastic surgery for your face, selecting a board-certified facial plastic surgeon and finding out as much about your desired procedure as possible is the best way to ensure that your facial plastic surgery will result in a positive outcome.