When we think about facelifts, we often focus on their ability to smooth wrinkles and tighten sagging skin—but what about changing the overall shape of your face? A facelift can change your face shape, but within natural limits. Here, La Jolla facial plastic surgeon Dr. Janet Chao explains how a facelift can subtly alter facial contours.
How a facelift alters face shape
The primary goal of a facelift is to tighten and reposition sagging tissues. This naturally changes how the skin lays over the underlying facial bones and changes the face shape in two main ways:
Improves facial symmetry
Beauty is often attributed to a symmetrical face, and while no face has perfect symmetry, a facelift (often with the help of complementary procedures like an eyelid lift or a brow lift) restores balance by addressing uneven sagging or volume loss. If your face has lost definition due to aging, a facelift is an ideal procedure to address skin laxity and restore the facial appearance you enjoyed years ago.
Facelifts are also excellent for people who have lost a significant amount of weight naturally or with GLP-1 weight loss medications and experience a change in facial appearance known as “Ozempic face”). A facelift can tighten the loose skin and remove uneven, or lingering fat deposits that rapid weight loss can leave behind.
Creates a more defined jawline and cheeks
One of the most noticeable changes after a facelift is improved jawline and cheek definition. As skin loses elasticity, jowls can form and blur the natural transition between the face and neck, and the cheek area can be overshadowed by fat deposits and excess, loose skin in the midface. The effects of these changes obscure your natural face shape, but can be corrected with a facelift.
So while facelift results do appear to change the face shape in many cases, the difference you see comes from optimizing key facial contours rather than fundamentally reshaping bone structure.
If you want to see a dramatic change in face shape—such as altering a round face to an angular one—additional procedures may be needed.
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Procedures that can help alter your face shape
A facelift alone may be enough to achieve the level of facial rejuvenation you want, but if you’re looking to adjust your overall face shape, consider:
- Fat grafting or fillers: These treatments add volume in key areas (like under the eyes or in the cheek area to further refine and balance facial proportions.
- For example, if you desire a softer, more heart-shaped face, fat grafting to the cheeks can enhance volume so that your face appears less square.
- With dermal fillers, we can build up areas like the cheeks, jawline, and chin to both smooth out angular features or sharpen rounded features for gentle, natural-looking changes in face shape.
- Chin augmentation: A customized chin implant can enhance projection and symmetry. Like fillers and fat transfer, chin implants can be conservative to bring harmony to the face or more noticeable to highlight more dramatic definition.
- Buccal fat removal: If you have fuller cheeks, buccal fat removal reduces the amount of fat in the cheeks to reveal more of your natural cheekbone structure and slim the midface.
- Botox for facial slimming: We place Botox or Daxxify in the masseter muscle to refine bulkiness towards the back of the jawline for a more feminine face shape.
Keep in mind that working with your unique bone structure will produce more natural-looking results than using these procedures to heavily augment your face shape.
Dr. Chao’s elite facial plastic surgery training and remarkable attention to detail offers patients safe, natural-looking results. She will work closely with you to understand your goals and concerns to bring your aesthetic vision to life.
Consult with a facial plastic surgeon in San Diego
If you’re considering a facelift and want to know how it can refine your face shape, the best way to determine your options is through a consultation with an experienced facial plastic surgeon. At our La Jolla plastic surgery practice, Dr. Chao uses personalized facelift techniques that enhance your natural beauty without altering your unique essence.
Schedule your consultation today by calling 858-224-2281 or filling out our online form.
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