Feeling disheartened? I'm 45 and just had a full-face deep rhytidectomy, yet some say there's barely any visible difference-but I wasn't drastically aged before the procedure to begin with!
I've seen cases with dramatic transformations; those patients presented severe pre-operative aging, so they naturally had far greater room for improvement. My situation was different, though. I maintained rigorous pre-procedure skincare and aesthetic upkeep: I received monthly hydro-injections (aquashine mesotherapy), and filler injections for nasolabial folds and alar base roughly every six months. Before committing to facelift surgery, I'd undergone thread lifting for many years running.
Consequently, I had far fewer wrinkles than most peers my age, yet skin laxity still betrayed my real age-most noticeably drooping around the eyes and the mid to lower face. Thread lifting and dermal fillers could no longer counteract the sagging. My history of aesthetic treatments is quite extensive, which actually raised the technical difficulty of my facelift surgery. I exercised extreme caution selecting my surgeon, ultimately choosing Dr. Yuan Bo, a practitioner with 30 years of experience who studied under Professor Liu Dalie, a leading specialist in facial plastic surgery and reconstructive repair.
I returned to the clinic for a one-month post-op follow-up and discussed skin tightening results with my surgeon. I told him, "What surprises me most is that the skin is maximally tightened, yet speaking and making facial expressions are completely unrestricted." Another pleasant surprise was the discreet placement of surgical incisions and exceptionally meticulous suturing. It's only been one month post-surgery, and scar marks are nearly undetectable at normal social distance.
Still, I haven't let my guard down. To facilitate optimal healing, I stick to a mild, low-spice diet daily.
As for overall outcomes: there's no earth-shattering, complete facial overhaul transformation-and honestly, that was never my goal. What I did aim for-subtle, natural rejuvenation and the vibrant vitality of a younger complexion-has been fully achieved.
