This past week I attended the Multi-Specialty Conference in Las Vegas. This is a unique conference that brings together physicians from four different specialties including plastic surgery, ENT/ facial plastics, oculoplastic surgery, and dermatology to focus on facial aesthetic education.
This year I was invited to give a lecture on our facelift technique which turned out to be a great experience. Our technique focuses on a comprehensive lifting of the SMAS layer of the face (the fatty layer that most significantly droops with age), thus giving an improvement in the midface, cheek, jowl, and jawline all through one technique. From the feedback I got from numerous participants of the conference it seems the lecture was received quite well.
Overall the focus of the conference seemed to be refining and expanding current techniques and technology instead of implementing anything very new. The application of less invasive techniques such as fillers and fat grafting is clearly growing and improving. However, there continues to be a heavy focus on lift procedures such as facelifts and necklifts. There still is no technology or non-invasive procedure that can tighten deep tissue at all, let alone come close to the effects of a well-performed facelift. Also, there was an interesting presentation I attended on the cost-benefit analysis of a surgical lift vs. injectables. This study basically concluded that a lift for the patient who is a good candidate will produce a more significant result at a lower yearly cost. Ultimately non-invasive treatments like injectables have a very important role targeting problems that cannot be treated necessarily by lift procedures. They are here to stay and their use will only continue to expand.
Dino R, Elyassnia, MD, PC
Board Certified Plastic Surgeon