The Face & Skin Center

September, 2011
San Francisco, CA

I served as an invited speaker at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in San Francisco. I was on a panel of physician experts discussing new technology for facial rejuvenation.

Other featured speakers at this annual international meeting included Dr. Timothy Marten from San Francisco, who spoke on his personal modifications to facelifting. His technique may allow for more improvement of the midfacial area in addition to the neck and cheek area.

Dr. Val Lambros, also from California, spoke on his concepts of facial aging and volume loss. Until the last ten years or so, facial aging was largely considered to be due to sagging skin and soft tissue, and the correction was to resuspend the tissue with facelifting or other procedures. In looking at patients who have had facial rejuvenation surgery, there was something missing that gave some of them a gaunt or pulled look. The missing component was facial volume.

If you look at the youthful face, you will note the fullness of the cheeks, lips and midface area that is lost with age. We are now combining resuspension surgery with volume replacement using fat transfer or other types of fillers. Fat is liposuctioned from the lower body and injected into areas of the face to replace what is missing. For patients with little fat or who wish for an in office procedure with less downtime, we have injectable fillers such as Sculptra™.

J Randall Jordan, MD, FACS