By: Michael Chiaramonte, MD, FACS

I was disappointed recently to see a New York Times article covering the popular branded mini-face lifts like Quicklift™ and Fastlift. You can check out the article for yourself, but its basic thrust is that these procedures remain wildly popular despite the fact that plenty of surgeons (and patients) say they tend to offer less-than-satisfying results.

It’s important to remember that patients don’t choose face lifts, they choose surgeons. Cosmetic surgery isn’t a manufactured and pre-packaged product, guaranteed to be identical for every patient. There are perhaps dozens of different types of face lift techniques, but even the same type of face lift from two different surgeons can yield very different results.

Your choice of plastic surgeon largely determines the results you will be able to achieve, so to me the whole process of “selling” patients on these branded face lifts and then connecting them with a surgeon who offers them seems pretty backwards.

It only makes sense that the right choice of surgeon leads to the right assessment of your needs, which leads to the right surgical plan, the right face lift procedure, and the right results. With that in mind, starting with the procedure and working in reverse – trusting to chance that the other factors for success will somehow fall in line – just doesn’t make much sense.

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