Plastic Surgery Video Interviews Newport Beach

[MUSIC PLAYING] I’m Jeff Horowitz. I’m one of the plastic surgeons at Pacific Center for Plastic Surgery.

When patients come to my office, there are several things that I feel I’m offering them. I’ve learned to perform a lot of different types of plastic surgery. And I’ve learned to perfect a lot of the different operations that I offer my patients. It’s taken 25 years to learn how to do these operations well, to really provide the best care for my patients and give them the best result.

I think our office is different than some other offices in what we bring to our patients. I think we have a really warm, inviting staff. We’ve hand selected our staff over years. We want a caring environment. We want our staff to develop long-lasting relationships with our patients. And I think this is important in a physician’s office. For us, it’s not just about doing the surgery.

It’s important to have a doctor who’s compassionate, a doctor cares about the patient, who cares about their family, and also a doctor who has a staff that feels the same way too guide them through this period of having a surgery and recovery. And I think I’ve done a good job in that over the years. And I think the staff that I work with does a great job in providing for my patients.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC] It’s basically the rested look. And I think that’s what begins with lifting as we age and we lose is collagen as it begins to sag a little bit. Then as you, not tighten up to that Joan Rivers point, that you get just the lift that it is, the LiteLift that it’s called. And I love Joan Rivers.

As with all women, we’re in the mirror and say, well, what would it be if this happened? What would it be if that happened? You know, if I just didn’t have these marionette lines, maybe something like that would be nice. And it would just add a touch of youthfulness without being severe. The areas of concern that I was when I came in was mostly my neck. Because facially, it was like still not ever quite looking my age.

But it was like, OK, so when I saw Dr. Horowitz, he said, well, we’ll work on this. And then with the marionette lines, and then pulling back told me exactly how the scars would be, and where there would be. And then, just some light lifting again just so that you look rested. I think it’s an opportunity to use your money wisely and still have a desired outcome of having fewer wrinkles, a better rested look that they do talk about. And the fact that scars are not going to be an issue generally, even with various hairstyles, I wear a baseball cap. You really don’t see any scars per say. And I think that’s really also important.

And just being able to have that advantage of just that little extra youthful look for a little bit longer period of time. I believe my surgery was on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, I was in church on Sunday. And no one really knew what had gone on. My overall experience has been great. It really has. Staff remembers your name, which I think is incredibly important. It makes you feel like you’re part of the family that is here to take care of you.

When I’ve come back in for facials it is my great pleasure to continue to bring friends in to have a facial and to recommend other people to have the LiteLift to come into one of Dr. Nichter and Dr. Horowitz’s educational forums that they do. So they can see that too. So yeah, it’s like you come here and you feel like you’ve gone to visit family. It’s just nice. In my opinion, I still look like me only just a rested me and fewer wrinkled me.

[MUSIC PLAYING] When I would look in the mirror, I felt like there was almost a sadness there, because no matter what I did as far as putting makeup on to give myself a fresh look, it just wasn’t happening. For me, I didn’t feel that I needed a full facelift, because there were just areas that I wanted to focus on.

I preferred a less invasive type of surgery. I like that it was just under a very light type of sedation. And you didn’t have really any of the complications that you might if you truly go under.

The area of concern for me was underneath my eyes. When I look into someone’s eyes, they can just tell so much about that person. And I felt old and haggard and worn. And I just thought that’s not reflective of me.

I feel like I am 40. And oftentimes, I have had people come up to me– and especially, when I’ve been with my daughter and they think that Jill and I are sisters. And sometimes, I feel bad for Jill because I don’t want her to feel that she looks older. But I feel that I look like I feel on the inside, which is what I wanted.

The staff is wonderful. The doctors are wonderful. The hard decision was choosing, because both doctors are excellent. And I miss coming back and seeing everyone. It was such a positive experience.

And I even asked them, is there something you’d like me to do? I’ll come and work one day a week just to be with you. Because you truly feel like family, and I am so appreciative of that.

So overall, it was a very, very positive experience. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to feel the better side of life. I couldn’t be happier. I should have done it a long time ago.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING] I think the best thing about having the lite lift for me personally was just being able to look at the age that I felt. It’s like I don’t mind growing older. I mean, that’s the good news is that you do get to grow older. But you don’t want to feel like you’re a grandma already.

I call it the wonder years. You start wondering how you look with a face lift. And I was doing that a lot.

I saw a lot of sagging. And I had bags under my eyes. And I just felt like I looked a lot older than I felt.

The big deal was I didn’t have to go to a hospital. I didn’t have to be under completely. I could just be given the happy pill as they say. It could be all done locally and in the facility itself. And it would only take several hours to do it. And I could go home and there would be less recovery time. So those are the big appealing factors to me.

Most of my close friends know that I had it done. And the others just say, you know, retirement’s done me well.

There were no hidden fees, hidden costs, hidden anything. Everything was very much up front. The procedure was laid out very plain. And so the expectations were there. And everything came out very positive I think. I have really no complaints at all and feel very good about the whole experience.

Well, I feel like I’m in my 50s. And most of the people I meet or I’ve seen, they say, oh, you look at least 10 years younger. So it makes me feel very well, very good.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[MUSIC PLAYING] I always felt young. I just wasn’t looking young. So I’m 63. And some days I feel 63, but most of the time I feel young– 50.

A friend of mine had it done, and she looked fabulous. She just said she loved the results. And she said it was an easy procedure. So I figured if it was easy, I could do it. And she looked really remarkably great, except she looked the same, which is what I wanted to have done. Just look better, but not change the way I look.

What I saw in the mirror before I had it done was a face that was aging and hanging– creepy. I had lost my chin line, which I didn’t have much of anyway. And it was getting difficult to put on makeup. So I thought, if they could just lift all that up, it would be perfect. And that’s what they did.

I didn’t want to go under general anesthetic very much. I liked the idea of just being able to go in and be out that same day. I heard it wasn’t painful, which it wasn’t. It was very easy. So that’s why I decided to try it. And it was the least intrusive for me.

I don’t think anybody has said, what did you do? It’s more– why is your skin so smooth? What kind of cream do you use? How come you aren’t wrinkled, and I am? I went to my reunion, and they talked about– next reunion, let’s all get something done with our faces. And they said, yeah, but Patty doesn’t need to have that done.

I’m starting to see people, like in elevators and at malls and things, that I want to say– because if they just had a little bit– if they just had the light lift, they’d look great. But I just think it makes all the difference in the world.

I feel proud now, I think, would be the word to say. And I feel more youthful. And I got my hair cut very short, which I always wanted to do but felt like I needed hair to cover my cheeks– my cheek line. So first thing I did was get a nice short haircut and show off my cheeks and chin line.

Don’t wait too long. Do it right away. It’s a very easy procedure. Recovery was fast. No pain. So I would say, go for it.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

When I look at myself now I think how fortunate I am to have had the Lite Lift and that I can go out in public without feeling like I’m tired. I feel my face is much brighter now than it was before. I was getting jowls and that was like a shock. I don’t look like I used to look, and that bothered me.

Also my neck was bothering me. I could see the signs of aging were there in my neck and also in my cheeks, so that was all tightened by the Lite Lift. A lot of my friends said that’s the best thing you’ve ever done. I wasn’t embarrassed to say what I had done because I just wanted to feel better about myself, as we all do.

It’s really nice to come to an office where the doctor really sits down with you and discusses everything and answers all your questions. He really was very honest I think that trust is a real issue. I felt like I could trust anything that my doctor said. It’s like family here. Everybody is friends and everybody takes the time to explain things when you call. I always feel like I’m talking to my new friends, so it was very good experience with the people in this office.

I didn’t say anything to my son for a long time because I thought maybe he would notice, but he never even noticed. The main thing is that I looked like I was rested and that I looked younger. We all want that, especially when you get to be this age. I felt like I could retire and still go out, have confidence, go where I wanted to go, and not feel like I was the oldest person there. It really boosted my overall morale of living life as an older person.

The Lite Lift if there’s a modified face lift that can be done in our office under local anesthetic. Lite Lift has shorter incisions, it’s less invasive, and has a much quicker recovery time. Our best candidates are those patients, which typically are in their late 30s to 60s, that is those patients with good elasticity of their skin.

However, we rely more on good health, that is physiological age not chronological age. So even if you’re in you’re 70s or even 80s– low 80s and you have excellent health and you’re not on a bunch of heart medicines, haven’t had a heart attack, and exercise daily, we’d much rather operate on a patient like that than someone who’s far younger with lots of medical problems. They also enjoys some wonderful results from this procedure.

I always felt young, I just wasn’t looking young. I’m 63 and some days I feel 63, but most the time I feel young, 50. A friend of mine had it done and she looked fabulous. She just said she loved the results. She said it was an easy procedure, so I figured if it was easy I could do it. She looked really remarkably great, except for she looked the same, which is what I wanted to have done, just look better but not change the way I look.

What I saw in the mirror before I had it done was a face that was aging and hanging, crepey. I had lost my chin line, which I didn’t have much of anyway and it was getting difficult to put on makeup. I thought if they could just lift all that up, it would be perfect. And that’s what they did.

The Lite Lift operation is different than a traditional face lift in several ways. The traditional face lift is the operation that all plastic surgeons learn how to do during their residency. Most plastics surgeons continue to do the same operation. Our patients came to the office and said we want to have an operation that’s an easier operation that looks natural that doesn’t have a windswept look and is more affordable.

We changed our technique in a number of different ways to meet the needs of our patients. Lite Lift has shorter incisions, can be done in the office under local anesthetic, and the recovery is usually only five to seven days.

I think the best thing about having the Lite Lift for me personally was just being able to look the age that I felt. It’s like I don’t mind growing older, that’s the good news, that you do get to grow older, but you don’t feel like you’re a grandma already. I called it the wonder years; you start wondering how you’d look with a face lift. I was doing that a lot I saw a lot of sagging and I had bags under my eyes. I just felt like I looked a lot older than I felt.

The big deal was I didn’t have to go to a hospital, I didn’t have to be under completely. I could just be given the happy pill as they say. It would be all done locally and in the facility itself, and it would only take several hours to do it, and I could go home. And they would be less recovery time. Those were the big appealing factors to me.

I ask this question in two different ways. The first one is, and many of you will roll you eyes back when I say this, is that it will last forever. I love to use the identical twin analogy. Let’s say you had an identical twin and that one of you had– let’s say you, for exampld– had a face lift, a Lite Lift and your twin did not. From that time forward you will always look younger than your identical twin. Five years from now, 10 years from now, or 20 years from now, you’ll always look so many years younger.

But that doesn’t mean that you stop the clock of time and normal aging. You don’t jump on the clock and break it. It keeps on ticking, so that in five or 10 years you’ll look five or 10 years older than you did right after you recovered from it. You will always have those long lasting effects.

When I look at myself now I think how fortunate I am to have had the Lite Lift and that I can go out in public without feeling like I’m tired. I feel my face is much brighter now than it was before. I was getting jowls and that was like a shock. I don’t look like I used to look, and that bothered me.

Also, my neck was bothering me. I could see the signs of aging were there in my neck and also in my cheeks, so that was all tightened by the Lite Lift. A lot of my friends said that’s the best thing you’ve ever done. I wasn’t embarrassed to say what I had done because I just wanted to feel better about myself, as we all do.

It’s really nice to come to an office where the doctor really sits down with you and discusses everything and answers all your questions. He really was very honest, and I think that trust is a real issue. I felt like I could trust anything that my doctor said.

Many patients come to the office and are concerned that the face lift will leave them looking too tight, to pulled or with a windswept look. The Light Lift, the way we perform it, leaves our patients looking natural. The muscles are tightened, but tightened just enough to give you a very natural appearance, but correct the neck and the face that most patients want to have changed.

When I would look and then mirror, I felt like there was almost a sadness there because no matter what I did as far as putting makeup on, to kind of give myself a fresh look, it just wasn’t happening. For me, I didn’t feel that I needed a full face lift because there were just areas that I wanted to focus on.

I preferred a less invasive type of surgery. I liked that it was just under a very light type of sedation and you didn’t have really any of the complications that you might if you truly go under. The area of concern for me was underneath my eyes. When I look into someone’s eyes, they can just tell so much about that person. I felt old and haggard and worn. I just thought that’s not reflective of me.

I feel like I am 40 and often times I’ve had people come up to me and– especially when I’ve been with my daughter and they think that Jill and I are sisters. Sometimes I feel bad for chill because I don’t want her to feel that she looks older, but I feel that I look like I feel on the inside, which is what I wanted.

Another common question that’s asked is how long is recovery. This actually varies from person to person. Some people tend to bruise more than others. Others tend to swell more than others. It’s a wide range of what it takes. However, the recovery is accelerated tremendously from the traditional face lift, about half the time. Typically I tell my patients one to two weeks they should be ready to go out in public.

If you have more than one procedure, like for example say you had a Lite Lift and you had your eyes done, a blepharoplasty and you also have a chemical peel, like a blue peel, that would probably increase recovery time by not too long, but maybe three, four, five extra days. But typically people recover very fast, and with light cover up makeup are able to go out public in one to two weeks.

It’s basically the rested look, and I think that’s what begins with lifting as we age and we lose collagen as it begins to sag a little bit. Then as you– not tighten up to that Joan River point, that you’ve got just the lift that it is. The Lite Lift that it’s called. I love Joan Rivers, trust me.

As with all women, we were in the mirror and say, well what would it be if this happened here. What would it be if that happened. If I just didn’t have these marionette lines. Maybe something like that would be nice. We just add a touch of youthfulness without being severe.

The areas of concern that I was when I came in was mostly my neck because facially it was like still not ever quite looking my age, but it was like OK so when I saw Dr. Horowitz, he said, well, we’ll work on this and then with marionette lines and then pulling back told me exactly how the scars would be, and where there would be. Just some light lifting, again, just so that you look rested.

I think it’s an opportunity to use your money wisely and still have a desired outcome of having fewer wrinkles, a better rested look that they do talk about and the fact that scars are not going to be an issue, generally, even with various hairstyles. I’ll wear a baseball cap. You really don’t see any scars per se. I think that’s really also important. Just being able to have that advantage of just that little extra youthful look for a little bit longer period of time.

Local anesthesia is perfect for most of our patients. However, because we are board certified plastic surgeons our patients have the option of having a twilight anesthesia or even a general anesthesia if that will make them feel more comfortable.

Dr. Horowitz and I have been performing this procedure for the past eight years, was the first one I did. With increasing frequencies, we do approximately in the office three to five of these Lite Lift procedures per week. We’ve been performing face lift procedures, however, for more than 25 years, however, and we’re just thrilled to be able to offer you a lot of the new advances that we’ve helped modify and improve upon a long lasting result through a minimally invasive procedure.

We hope you learned a lot about the Lite Life and all of your questions were answered today. If you have any more questions after this brief introduction call the office or make an appointment to see Dr. [? Nictor ?]or myself or one of the consultants.

Don’t wait too long. Do it right away. It’s very easy procedure. Recovery was fast. No pain. I would say go for it. I feel like I’m in my 50s and most of the people I meet or I’ve seen, oh yeah, you look at least 10 years younger. It makes me feel very good.

It’s like you come here and you feel like you’ve gone to visit family, which is nice. In my opinion I still look like me, only just a rested me and fewer wrinkled me.

The main thing is that I looked like I was rested and that I looked younger, and we all want that. Especially when you get to be this age.

I couldn’t be happier. I should have done it a long time ago.

Hi. I’m Dr.Horowitz, I don’t want to thank everybody for coming today to hear about the Lite Lift. Dr. Nitchter and I are not available, we’re out of town, and we hope that this will be informational for you and you have a good time.

You’ll learn today from that everyone here, including some of the patients that have had this procedure, what a wonderful operation the Lite Lift is.

The Lite Lift is a modified face lift that can be done in our office under local anesthetic. The Lite Lift has shorter incisions, it’s less invasive, and has a much quicker recovery time.

Our best candidates are those patients which typical are in their late ’30s to ’60s, that is those patients with good elasticity of their skin. However, we rely more on good health, that is physiological age, not chronological age.

So even if you’re in your ’70s or even ’80s, early ’80s, and you have excellent health and you’re not on a bunch of heart medicines, haven’t had a heart attack, and exercise daily, we’d much rather operate on a patient like that than someone who is far younger with lots of medical problems. And they also enjoy some wonderful results from this procedure.

The Lite Lift operation is different than a traditional face lift in several ways. The traditional face lift is the operation that all plastic surgeons learned how to do during their residency. Most plastic surgeons continue to do the same operation.

Our patients came to the office and said we want to have an operation that’s an easier operation, that looks natural, that doesn’t have a windswept look, and is more affordable.

We changed our technique in a number of different ways to meet the needs of our patients.

Lite Lift has shorter incisions, can be done in the office under local anesthetic, and the recovery is usually only five to seven days.

And I answer this question in two different ways. The first one is, and many of you will roll your eyes back when I just say this, is that it will last forever. And I love to use the identical twin analogy.

Let’s say that you had an identical twin and that one of you had– let’s say you, for example– had a face lift, a Lite Lift, and your twin did not. Well from that time forward, you will always look younger than your identical twin. Five years from now, 10 years from now, or 20 years from now, you’ll always look so many years younger.

But that doesn’t mean that you stop the clock of time and normal aging. You don’t jump on the clock and break it, it keeps on ticking. So that in 5 or 10 years, you’ll look 5 or 10 years older rather than you did right after you recovered from it, but you’ll always have those long-lasting effects.

Many patients come to the office and they’re concerned that the face lift will leave them looking too tight, too pulled, or with a windswept look. The Lite Lift, the way we perform it, leaves our patients looking natural. The muscles are tightened, but tightened just enough to give you a very natural appearance, but correct the neck and the face that most patients want to have changed.

Another common question that’s asked is how long is recovery. And this actually varies from person to person. Some people tend to bruise more than others. Others tend to swell more than others. And so there’s a wide range of what it takes. However, the recovery is accelerated tremendously from a traditional face lift, about half the time.

So typically I tell my patients one to two weeks they should be ready to be able to go out in public. If you have them more than one procedure, like for example, say you have a Lite Lift and you had your eyes done, a blepharoplasty, and you also have a chemical peel, like a blue peel, that would probably increase recovery time by not too long, but maybe three, four, five extra days. But typically people recover very fast and with light cover-up makeup, are able to go out in public in one to two weeks.

Local anesthesia is perfect for most of our patients. However, because we are board certified plastic surgeons, our patients have the option of having a twilight anesthesia or even a general anesthesia that will make them feel more comfortable.

Dr. Horowitz and I have been performing this procedure for the past eight years– was the first one I did– with increasing frequencies. We do approximately, in the office, three to five of these Lite Lift procedures per week. We’ve been performing face lift procedures, however, for more than 25 years. And we’re just thrilled to be able to offer you a lot of the new advances that we’ve helped modify and improve upon a long-lasting result through minimally-invasive procedure.

Thanks again for coming. I hope you enjoy the rest of the evening.

We want to thank everybody for coming today. We hope you had a good time and we hope you learned a lot about the Lite Lift and all of your questions were answered today. If you have any more questions after this brief introduction, call the office or make an appointment to see Dr. Nichter or myself, or one of the consultants.

Thanks again for coming.

The question about thin skinned. I’ve used Differin for about 20 years, and I notice that my skin seems to be extra delicate. How does that affect what you do, if at all?

OK, so we take care of patients that have run a gamut of ages. We have patients that are probably in their early ’40s, and we have patients who are substantially older than that. And all different types of skin types, based on age, based on ethnicity, based on where they grew up, and sun damage in California. Skin that’s been taken care of, because they live in a more Northeastern climate. So we really have a gamut of skin types that we take care of.

The procedure, because it’s less invasive than a standard, a traditional face lift, we clearly have– there are less issues. Even patients that we worry about, patients who smoke, are always a higher risk for having problems. Because there’s less tissues with circulation with this particular technique, those patients do better. We’re a little bit less concerned when we operate on those patients.

Hi. This is Dr. Horowitz again, and I’m now three days post-peel. It’s Monday afternoon. And you can see a lot of the blue has already come off. My wife says I’m a little bit flaky, but I’m still appealing. And I am peeling in small amounts, and it is flaking off my skin in small bits and pieces.

There’s no pain, but my skin is definitely feeling really tight. And so I’m washing my skin now twice a day with Cetaphil and applying a little bit of Aquaphor lotion to keep it moisturized.

Hi. I’m Dr. Jed Horowitz, and I just had my Blue Peel about 40 hours ago. It’s Sunday morning, and I had the Blue Peel on Friday afternoon about 5 o’clock. As you can see, I’m really blue. My eyes are somewhat swollen, the face is a little bit swollen, but there’s really no discomfort at all.

On Friday, about an hour before the Blue Peel, I put topical anesthetic all over my face and neck. And this allowed enough time for that to be absorbed into the skin. In addition, I took 800 milligrams of Motrin and one 100-milligram Celebrex tablet. These are two different types of anti-inflammatory pills that work to take the edge off of any discomfort that I might have had while the procedural was done.

In addition, patients can have lidocaine injections performed as nerve blocks around their face, to make the area completely numb. And this also helps before you have the procedure.

So the procedure itself takes about 30 minutes. It’s done by our medical aesthetician, Pam. And she applies several coats of the Obagi formula, which uses TCA, or trichloroacetic acid as the medium which creates the peel itself. On the initial passes, there are several passes that are done or several coats that are done of the Blue Peel. There’s very little discomfort.

As the procedure gets on, you’ll feel, the patient– and I was the patient– will feel areas that are tingling and burn a little bit. But it’s certainly tolerable. And Pam will tell you I was a really good patient. I didn’t cry. I didn’t hit her. I didn’t do anything bad. But I laid there. I was really very comfortable.

And at the end of the procedure, I did have some burning in the area that the Blue is placed. However, that dissipated over about the next hour and was readily tolerable with just the two anti-inflammatory pills that I took. So the peel was started at about 5 o’clock, 5:30, between that time. And by 7 o’clock, there was no discomfort at all.

I went to sleep that night. I woke up, and yesterday morning, I had a little bit of swelling, no discomfort at all. And I didn’t wash my skin. Pam told me not to wash at all. So again, I was a really good patient. I did what I was told. So I just left my skin alone all day yesterday.

And this morning, I took a shower. I washed my skin with Cetaphil and put a thin layer of Aquaphor on the skin. And so again, you can see that there’s a little bit of swelling. There’s no discomfort at all.

Now, my anticipation is that the blue coloration will peel off over the next several days. And by the fifth day, most of this should be peeled off, leaving nice healthy skin showing through.

So this is my personal experience on a procedure that I highly recommend for many of my patients. So now, I get to share their experience. And if there are any questions, you can call the office, and I’ll be happy to talk to you about it. And Pam can tell you more about the Blue Peel.

[MUSIC PLAYING] Hi, I’m Dr. Jed Horowitz. And I want to thank everybody for coming here today. I’m sorry we can’t be here with you. But you’ll have a great presentation and a lot of interesting information. So thanks again for coming.

Hi, my name is Larry Nichter. I’m a plastic surgeon obviously here at Pacific Center for Plastic Surgery. I wanted to thank everyone for coming today. And I’m so sorry I can’t be with you personally.

The lite lift is a modified face lift, which has a lot of advantages. It has about 40% less scarring than a traditional face lift. It’s a quicker procedure, which also means it’s a fast recovery. And the best thing about it is that it gives a very natural appearance, not a swept away appearance, and basically, with a very quick recovery time.

The best candidates for a lite lift are men or women who are healthy, who show signs of aging in their lower face and neck, and have realistic expectations about what they can achieve from the procedure.

Well, mini facelift, it’s really just wastebasket term for a whole bunch of different procedures. And unfortunately, a lot of people that are less trained and certainly not plastic surgeons are doing these procedures, under the quotes “guise” of a mini facelift. And many of these rely on just redraping, minor undermining, justredraping skin. And you would probably get a very nice appearance for a very short period of time, but certainly not longevity.

The lite lift is a quicker operation. And it has quicker healing than a traditional facelift, but seems to be as long lasting as a traditional facelift because of the techniques that we use.

The most common question we’re asked is how long is this going to last, the lite lift. And the example I’d like to give is, it’s going to last forever. Now, I know you’re all going to roll your eyes back when you hear this. But I have identical twin boys, for example. And if one of them had this procedure and the other one did not, one would always look far younger. So you turn back the hands of time, but the clock keeps ticking. And you always look better than if you did not have this procedure.

The lite lift procedure provides natural results for our patients. It lets you become a more rested, youthful version of the way you look now. It doesn’t look windswept. It doesn’t look pulled. There’s a vertical lift that acts against the natural forces of gravity and aging.

The vast majority of our patients, in fact, about 3/4 of them, will opt to have this procedure done in the office under local anesthesia with some Ativan, which is something that makes you sleepy and very relaxed. Most of our patients sleep for most of the procedure. However, comfort is the big word here. And we offer three choices to all our patients. We want all of you who have this procedure to be very comfortable. So we can do it under twilight anesthesia, which is some IV sedation. It can be mild or deeper. And we even offer general anesthesia for those patients that wish it. But the advantage is that it’s not necessary. It’s just for your comfort.

It’s important to understand the recovery process for a lite lift. Most patients are recovered in one to two weeks. Many patients, if they’re only having the lite lift and not having eyelid surgery or any other procedures, actually look very good even in the first five to seven days, and can probably be in public within seven days. As we add on additional procedures, that healing process may take a little bit longer. There may be some firmness in the area that has surgery. And obviously, there’s a small amount of swelling, particularly in the first week.

It’s a nationally advertised chain of centers– not surgeons, but centers– that do outpatient mini facelifts under local anesthesia. You’re not given a choice. All of them are done under local anesthesia with some oral sedation. Also, many of the doctors are not board-certified plastic surgeons. Some are. Some are not. Typically, from what I hear from my patients who’ve been to these consultations are that you are not even seen by a plastic surgeon, most cases, on the first appointment.

In complete contrast, we’re more of a boutique practice. We take very personalized care. You meet with your surgeon the first time. We spend an extensive period of time. And each surgery is absolutely individualized to your needs and what’s required to give you a very natural result.

The lite lit is a procedure that we have trademarked the name for. But it’s a combination of a technique of doing the operation and the way in which we provide the anesthetic and the total care package that we present to our patients. So although other surgeons can do variations of short scar facelifts or vertical facelifts or other modifications, we’re the only doctors who can actually do the lite lift surgery as we have packaged it for our patients.

It’s actually great to be in a practice with another well-qualified plastic surgeon. When we develop these techniques, we often develop them together. We do the procedures, first several, together. And we work on various techniques and nuances, and are constantly discussing improvements in the technique. And that always keeps our learning curve very high and steep. But the benefits are really tremendous. And I think this is what allowed us to achieve this.

The second aspect is we listen to our patients. Our patients forever have been telling us, do we have to have a general aesthetic. Do we have to have scars that go all the way behind your ears because they’re telltale signs? I’m so worried that I may not look natural. And I’ve seen other bad facelifts where they have that swept away appearance. And we listen to all these. And we try to figure out how to achieve this. And I think all surgical specialties are trying to get at how can you achieve the same results, but use more noninvasive techniques. And that’s what we’ve achieved at Pacific Center for Plastic Surgery and how the lite lift was developed.

The lite lift as it is done today with the type of anesthetic that is done today has been done primarily in the last four years. But we started doing the actual technique, the actual surgical technique, more than 10 years ago. And Dr. Nichter and I have been doing facelifts of every type for over 25 years.

We individualize every procedure we do. It’s extremely common for you to age not just at the jawline and upper neck, but sometimes the neck ages a little bit faster. And sometimes people have these bands. We often do a neck lift with this, which is called a platysmaplasty or tightening the neck muscles.

Many patients are concerned that they’re told they have a very tired appearance. And they want their upper or lower or both eyelids corrected. And also we often lift up the brow and do at temple lift, which again, can be done through very small incisions behind the hairline.

And lastly is, I mentioned previously that you actually age in three ways. One is laxity and gravity. And that’s what the lite lift and other lifts take care of. However, you also lose volume in certain areas– for example, the cheek area, when you get much older, the temple area. And also, many people have this little depression right on the side of the chin called the pre-jowl. And they can all be corrected with transferring fat, for example, which, again, restores the youthful volume that you once had.

And lastly, the skin surface texture by both genetics and environmental factors– and California’s a pretty harsh environment. Even though we’re close to the ocean, it’s really a desert. There’s a lot of surface characteristics– brown spots, large pores, fine and coarse wrinkles. And we often do peels, such as the blue peel, which is a very mild peel that we often do at the same time as the lite lift, without really substantially lengthening the recovery period. So you restore that nice, smooth skin as well.

When patients come to our office, we try to provide them with an outstanding experience in many, many ways. We want our patients to be very comfortable with all of our staff. We want them to be comfortable in our office setting. We want them to understand the procedures that they’re going to have. The lite lift, we want them to know what options they can have when they’re having the lite lift. Or maybe they don’t need the lite lift. Maybe they just need skin care or some other treatment at this point in their lives. We want to establish a relationship with this patient that will go beyond the initial visit and go beyond the surgery. It’s important for us that when our patients come to the office that they’re confident in the doctors, that they’re comfortable with the staff members, and they’re just having an outstanding experience from the time they pick up the phone and call the office until they have their surgery and complete their surgery. We want to establish long-term relationships with our patients. Our patients are our primary focus.

The patients are so thrilled with their lite lift that our practice has grown exponentially. In fact, it is the most popular procedure we perform. And the reason is happy patients. We treat you as members of the family. We spend lots of time counseling you and are also available through the recovery period, which is also extremely important. But most importantly, it’s the patients’ happy experience and them telling all their friends and neighbors and associates and people they meet. That’s really what drives our practice and what makes it such a wonderful place to practice.

Thanks so much for coming. We really appreciate your time. If we can answer any further questions, please don’t hesitate to come in and make an appointment and see us. Thanks so much.

I hope this short video was informational for you. And I hope you had a great time today. Our staff is amazing. And I’m sure they answered all of your questions. But if anything is left outstanding, what I’d like you to do is go on to our website. We have a huge amount of information there. We have videos. We have photos. And you can call the office with any questions that you have. Or you can email us at our email address. And we’ll answer any of questions that are remaining. So thanks again for coming. And we hope to see you soon.

[MUSIC PLAYING] I became a plastic surgeon because I was fortunate during my general surgery training at Emory University to work with an incredible department division of plastic surgeons. These academic plastic surgeons were young, energetic, invigorating. They were extremely artistic. They were developing new techniques in plastic surgery. They were writing the books on plastic surgery.