Last year over 125,000 people in the U.S. had a facelift. In Inland Empire, where I practice, many people want to look younger and more attractive. Everyone wants natural looking results. And, naturally, they want a safe procedure. Medical News Today reports:
Complications of facelift surgery are infrequent, and cosmetic procedures are generally safe, as long as they are carried out by a qualified and experienced professional.
A facelift in Inland Empire or anywhere else is generally safe when performed by a qualified facial plastic or plastic surgeon. However, there is a way to maximize your safety while still getting you the natural-looking results you want. I learned this technique and used it to perform nearly 4,000 cosmetic surgical procedures (mostly facelifts) in Inland Empire and Beverly Hills, California. If you’re considering a facelift, you’ll want to hear what I have to say.
Why be Concerned About Increasing Facelift Safety?
Since a facelift is generally a safe procedure, why concern yourself with safety? Because problems, though rare, do at times occur. A review of in-office surgery carried out by the State of Florida revealed that they’re usually connected with one aspect of the procedure: anesthesia that puts people to sleep. General or I.V. anesthesia that puts the patient under is best administered in a hospital. There an anesthesiologist or, at the very least, a nurse anesthetist can monitor your vital signs carefully.
Propofol is one type of I.V. anesthesia that definitely requires monitoring. Many facelift procedures in Inland Empire and Los Angeles are performed using Propofol. A number of plastic and facial plastic surgeons use it along with local anesthetics. It’s easy to see why it’s so popular. Surgeons find that patients fall asleep rapidly and wake up quickly after their procedure with Propofol. People often feel better after surgery with Propofol than with other I.V. sedation drugs.
Propofol’s Safety Concerns
Propofol is a drug with both real benefits and serious risks. This became evident with the deaths of Michael Jackson and Joan Rivers. Research reveals that patients who appear to be doing well during surgery can suddenly experience heart problems or breathing issues.
Here’s What Can Happen
Under Propofol your breathing rate can slow. This puts less oxygen in your bloodstream. Usually your body compensates for this by making your heart beat faster. But Propofol often makes your heart beat more slowly. This can cause blood oxygen levels to drop dangerously. Sometimes your blood pressure can decline to abnormal levels. Reports indicate that this may have happened to Joan Rivers. She suffered irreversible damage because her surgical team missed the initial warning signs. By the time they took action, it was too late. Anesthesia, a medical journal, states:
Doses of Propofol should be kept as low as effectively possible, and patients who are required to be sedated with Propofol should have monitoring of blood pressure, electrocardiograms, and arterial blood gases for unexplained metabolic acidosis and arrhythmias.
Put more simply, WebMD listed these Propofol side effects by their severity and how likely they were to occur. Under Common Side Effects, WebMD listed:
- Periods Of Not Breathing
- Slow Heartbeat
- Abnormally Low Blood Pressure
WebMD warned that these side effects “tend to have a severe expression.” If you have them, you could be in for trouble. To be truthful, many plastic surgeons use Propofol regularly and their patients come through their procedures just fine. But serious complications can develop and this calls for close supervision from a trained medical anesthetist. Otherwise there can be severe consequences. And frankly, adding more members to your surgical team increases not only your safety but also your cost.
A Safer, Less Expensive Alternative
More and more plastic and facial plastic surgeons now perform facelifts under local anesthesia. For what reasons? Local anesthesia improves safety and can lower your cost. And while local anesthetics must be given correctly, unless you’re sensitive to them they are very safe. It’s much easier to avoid problems with local anesthetics (like those used by your dentist) than with general anesthesia or Propofol.
In their journal article, “Local Anesthesia in Facial Plastic Surgery,” University of Washington Professor of Anesthesiology Dr. Brian Ross and facial plastic surgeon Dr. Craig Murakami wrote:
Most anesthetic complications are easily avoided if one is careful to limit administration [of the local anesthetic] to nontoxic amounts.
The facts support their conclusion. Back in 2000, the State of Florida began requiring that physicians who performed procedures in their offices report all adverse events. In 2006 they complied and studied data from over 600,000 surgeries. Their report, “Office surgery safety: six years of Florida data”, (Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, Sept 2006) attributed major complications, some serious, to general anesthesia and IV sedation. No serious problems were attributed to local anesthesia.
Why Doesn’t Everyone Use Safer Local Anesthesia?
Despite local anesthesia’s advantages, some surgeons feel more comfortable using general anesthesia or Propofol. That’s often because local anesthesia has a time limit. Lidocaine, which we use at STC Plastic Surgery for facelift procedures in Inland Empire, lasts 2-3 hours. Surgeons who prefer to operate at a deliberate pace use Propofol.
Surgeons who are very experienced often prefer to use safer local anesthesia for facelifts, necklifts and other cosmetic procedures. The average plastic surgeon, who works on the entire body, does 15-20 facelifts each year. I worked with a group of highly talented facial plastic surgeons for a national practice that marketed our services aggressively. Because of that, many of us performed up to 10 or more facelifts per week, 50 weeks a year. The surgeons in that group gained an exceptional level of experience that most doctors have never had the opportunity to gain. I’ve performed some 4,000 facial cosmetic surgery procedures, mostly facelifts in Inland Empire and Beverly Hills.
With this level of experience, my colleagues and I are very comfortable working within the 2-3 hour window required for safer local anesthesia. When you’ve each already performed far more facelifts than several average plastic surgeons would do in their entire careers, there aren’t many challenges the doctors from this group haven’t already seen and repeatedly overcome. Our exceptional experience also permits us to give our patients outstanding natural results.
This group of exceptionally experienced plastic and facial plastic surgeons is spread across the United States. If you’re considering a facelift in Inland Empire, California, you can contact me here at STC Plastic Surgery in Ontario. We’re looking forward to having you come in for a free consultation.