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Facelift surgery, often referred to as “rhytidectomy,” is a facial-rejuvenation procedure to help correct telltale signs of aging. Factors such as genetics, smoking, diet, stress, sun exposure, and the effects of gravity and time can contribute to sagging midfaces, bags under the eyes, deep nasolabial folds (the lines from the corners of the nose to the corners of the mouth), hanging jowls, a loose jawline, “turkey-gobble” neck, vertically tight cords on the neck (“platysmal bands”), and lax facial skin. The loss of confidence in the way one looks can impact many aspects of one’s life, from personal relationships to business success.

The effects of facial aging don’t have to be permanent, however. Board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Barry Weintraub believes in achieving results that are natural, understated, always with a “less is more” approach and a keen eye towards natural attractiveness. You should look refreshed and rejuvenated after a facelift, never “fake” or “done.”  All incisions are hidden so that telltale signs of surgery are not apparent.  Critical to a superior result is meticulous and tedious plication and suspension of the deeper facial layers, or SMAS (submuscular aponeurotic system), in an effort to achieve a result that should last in excess of ten years. Often Dr. Weintraub employs auxiliary procedures to enhance his delicate facelift work. These procedures can include: removal of fat from jowls and neck, addition of fat to areas devoid of volume (such as the cheekbone region, and areas around the mouth), as well as laser resurfacing to transform skin from burlap to silk.

What Is a Facelift?

Facelift surgery is a long-term solution to correct aging, haggard-looking faces, replenishing them with lost volume and restoring facial definition, thus taking years off of your appearance. A facelift can correct a variety of facial conditions, including wrinkles, laugh lines, hanging jowls, drooping noses, baggy eyes, and sagging skin. Undergoing a facelift can also redefine the jawline and chin for an elegant-looking profile.*

Dr. Barry Weintraub often focuses on multiple facial areas during your procedure. Other surgeries can be incorporated to address your specific needs. For example, your facelift procedure can be combined with a necklift, brow lift, eyelid surgery, and rhinoplasty, as well as other facial-rejuvenation procedures, balancing your face and ensuring a cohesive appearance.

Of particular note is the youthening effect of a subtle rhinoplasty done in conjunction with a facelift. As we age, the nose often droops and becomes more bulbous in men, and less feminine in women. In addition, a conservative chin augmentation can work wonders to define and recreate the jawline of youth. The secret is to know how much to correct so that the result is absolutely natural looking.

Patients who undergo facelift surgery do so in the comfort of Dr. Weintraub’s AAAASF (American Association of Ambulatory Surgical Facilities) accredited, stunning, and extremely private New York surgical facility. The procedure lasts a few hours and patients can expect minimal swelling and bruising following surgery. Results can be seen almost immediately. Facelift surgery yields long-lasting definition and contours to achieve a facial profile that promotes confidence.

Am I a Candidate for Facelift Surgery?

The best candidates for facelift surgery are well balanced, in good general health, and possess realistic expectations. You are an excellent candidate if you’ve done your homework, have had your consultation, and the following three things are present:

  • You are highly motivated to make the change.
  • You have the ability to pause your daily responsibilities (work, family, school etc.) in order to undergo the procedure.
  • You have the financial wherewithal to make an elective cosmetic surgery come to fruition.

What Is the Ideal Age for Facelift Surgery?

There is no specific chronological age that determines when you should have a rejuvenative procedure. When you look in the mirror and see something that truly bothers you – that’s when you should pick up the phone or send us an email to arrange for a consultation. Remember, though, there is only one person to have plastic surgery for: you and you alone. It should never be undertaken due to pressure from others.

What Are the Goals of a Facelift?

Facelift surgery should lift areas of loose or sagging skin to an attractive position, but it should never be tight or unnatural looking. Undergoing a facelift can also reduce the appearance of troublesome facial folds, hanging jowls, fine lines, and wrinkles. Top NYC plastic surgeon Dr. Weintraub always focuses on producing rejuvenating facelift results that are natural looking, understated, and elegant.

Patient Results

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How Should I Prepare for Facelift Surgery?

Once you have decided to make this exciting new change, you will need to provide medical clearance from your family physician. You will be given instructions as to how to prepare for the specific surgery you have chosen, and will be given prescriptions to be filled in advance. Garments (when appropriate) will be ordered for you by Dr. Weintraub’s office. For those patients who live beyond a 50-mile radius of New York City, Dr. Weintraub advises a two-night post-operative stay at The Pierre, The St. Regis, The Surrey, The Mark or The Carlyle Hotel, where his patients are given a special reduced rate, and where he will visit you after your procedure. A private nurse can also be provided.

What Does the Facelift Procedure Entail?

Safety comes first. Plastic surgery is surgery, and should therefore be taken seriously.

Dr. Weintraub prefers his patients to be in a comfortable state of twilight sleep, where the patient is unarousable and is awakened only after the procedure is over. Due to advancements in anesthesia and new medications possessing a shorter half-life, no longer do patients have to contend with nausea, vomiting or grogginess; rather, the emergence from anesthesia is crisp and clear.

Dr. Weintraub insists on the most sterile conditions in the operating room, with board-certified anesthesiologists and state-of-the-art monitoring equipment commensurate with the highest hospital standards. The only person performing the surgery is Dr. Weintraub himself. Every intraoperative maneuver is executed with precision and care, and all wounds are sewn in multiple layers by his own hand.

Cosmetic plastic surgery should never be rushed, and Dr. Weintraub always strives for the best, as he understands that patients will live with the result for the rest of their lives. His aesthetic is sophisticated and reflective of understated elegance. In his own words, “Cosmetic surgery is nothing less than artwork on the human form.”

Where Is Facelift Surgery Performed?

Though once limited to a hospital setting, the more modern approach to cosmetic plastic surgery is to perform such procedures in a safe, secure and completely private operating room. Although Dr. Weintraub has privileges at Lenox Hill Hospital, Manhattan Eye Ear and Throat Hospital, and The Center for Specialty Care (outpatient limb of Weill-Cornell Hospital), he prefers the privacy of his hospital-grade, state-of-the-art surgical center attached to his office at 800A Fifth Avenue. This facility is attended by Dr. Weintraub’s team of board-certified anesthesiologists, certified registered nurses, and fully licensed operating-room staff. With its private entrance, its standards are of the highest quality, and offer Dr. Weintraub’s patients the utmost in medical and plastic-surgical care.

What Can I Expect After Facelift Surgery?

There will always be a short period of minimal swelling and sometimes bruising. You must carefully follow all instructions provided by Dr. Weintraub in order to achieve the best results possible. He is a firm believer in early showering, because, in his own words, “Clean wounds make for narrower incisions.” He will advise you as to when you can return to your normal lifestyle and exercise routine.

How Much Does a Facelift Cost?

Each patient is individual in his/her own makeup and anatomical configuration. Therefore, in order to give an accurate quote for facelift, it is best to schedule a consultation that will allow Dr. Weintraub to appropriately judge what is involved. For those patients who live overseas or outside New York City or the Hamptons, photographs can be emailed or sent to the office, and a phone consultation can then take place.

How to Find the Best Facelift Surgeon

  • Check for board certification by the American Board of Plastic Surgery (there are many other boards, some legitimate, some not, but there is only one American Board of Plastic Surgery, established in 1931).
  • Ensure that the physician attends a major hospital in your community, and is in good standing with that hospital.
  • Confirm that he or she has a fine reputation amongst other medical professionals in your community.
  • Speak to the surgeon’s patients who have undergone similar procedures.

Remember, this is your treatment, and you are interviewing the doctor as much as he’s interviewing you. Do not hesitate to bring a list of questions with you on your consultation. And remember: a good surgeon is someone who not only has the skill to perform the treatment, but is someone who understands what your specific needs and desires are. A good surgeon should listen, listen, and listen!

Have no fear during your consultation. This is a time to speak, to be heard, and to develop a trusting relationship. Questions can be answered, and fears allayed. And while Dr. Weintraub is at the forefront of his field in terms of his techniques and medical developments, you will find his office environment to be warm, personable, and inviting. He and his staff truly care about each and every patient, and take great pride in making themselves available to help with every step of the process.

Why Choose Dr. Weintraub for Facelift Surgery?

Awarded by Newsweek as one of America’s Best Plastic Surgeons 2023 in the specialty of Facelift, Dr. Weintraub is a highly respected facelift surgeon, having helped countless patients throughout his career to achieve incredibly natural and youthful results.

Dr. Weintraub has always been blessed with a strong aesthetic sense. He possesses a unique blend of medical science and artwork, as it truly is artwork that he performs on the human form. His attention to detail ensures that he gets the best results possible, and he is meticulous about everything he does, from pre-op to post-op care and beyond.*

He studied medicine at Cornell during a time when core values were emphasized, and it is on these values that he bases his practice. He believes that physicians should be humble and respectful, and should never lose sight that the person they are operating on is exactly that: a person possessing real-life issues and concerns. The chairmen of the department of general surgery at Cornell at the time, Dr. Tom Shires, along with another luminary, Dr. Leon Morgenstern of Cedars-Sinai, taught Dr. Weintraub that “The operating room is a sacred place. It’s a very serious place. Never be cavalier about surgery.”

During his surgical residency training, Dr. Weintraub regularly visited Mexico to donate his time operating on deformed children and adults who couldn’t afford proper healthcare. In less-than-optimal conditions, he learned how to perform surgery with the basics, and received great satisfaction in making profound differences in people’s lives by restoring their faces and bodies. Similarly, when he was Chief Resident at the New York Hospital – Cornell Medical Center, and later when he was Chief Resident at the Reconstructive Unit at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, he found that his compassion for patients, along with his skill and precision as a surgeon, could change lives and bring people joy they never thought possible

Dr. Weintraub believes that surgery is never a race. The patient is always number one. He keeps in his wallet a piece of paper that is his motto in the operating room: “Always demand what is right, and never accept second best.” He likes to consider himself a “thinking surgeon,” and does not enter the operating room with a mechanical series of steps to execute robotically, but likes to remain alert and ready for whatever intraoperative challenges might spontaneously arise. Although many notable surgeons openly listen to music while performing surgery, Dr. Weintraub does not, preferring the mood of the operating room to remain serious and focused.

Over 60% of Dr. Weintraub’s practice is comprised of complex redos of surgeries performed by other offices. Such procedures always involve difficult issues, since there exist not only the limitations of a patient’s own anatomy, but also the limitations of another surgeon’s aesthetic, and the scar tissue that has developed as a result. Patients seek Dr. Weintraub from all over the world to correct their aesthetic problems. He takes great pride in getting the best results, and always enjoys the challenges of such procedures.

Last, Dr. Weintraub will not hesitate to turn patients away if he feels they are not good candidates for surgery. If a surgery is not in someone’s best interest, he will be the first to say so. However, when a patient is a good candidate, the results produced by Dr. Weintraub can be magical, and he feels that it is an honor to give patients a gift they can enjoy for the rest of their lives.

Schedule Your Facelift Consultation

Dr. Weintraub and his staff will be happy to discuss facelift surgery with you. Please call our New York City office for a private consultation. We hope you look forward to our warm welcome and the opportunity for us to help you make an educated and confident decision.

Contact our office today and set up your consultation for a facelift.