Will Face Lifts Fix Wrinkles?

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Video Transcript

Narrator
Can a face lift get rid of my wrinkles and lines?

Robert Kotler, MD
Surgery can't do it because surgery cannot pull out lines and wrinkles. This is a very common misconception, very common, that surgery is the answer to aged skin of the face. It isn't. Surgery is an answer to sags and bags, the jowls, sagging neck, heavy platysma, the neck muscle flapping in the breeze, the turkey neck, whatever you want to call it, surgery is the answer. But, it can't address skin quality.

Narrator
So, that's what happens with these guys who end up pulling too tight up here?

Robert Kotler, MD
Yeah, when you see patients who look like they were strapped to a 747 or they just came out of a wind tunnel, the surgeon rendered a procedure that was not ideal for the patient. And that's not good. The patient probably should have had a different modality, a different type of treatment, chemical, laser. Surgery cannot be expected to pull out all of the fine little lines. It can't be expected to change the quality of the skin any more than pulling a shirt is the substitute for ironing it.