Deep Plane Facelift

Patients often encounter several terms — SMAS lift, mini facelift, lower facelift, S-lift — before they understand how they differ. The distinction matters because the choice of technique should follow anatomy, not a preference list.

SMAS lift (standard): The dissection elevates a flap of skin and fat, then plicates or implicates the SMAS separately — folding or suturing it without releasing the deep ligaments. Effective for moderate laxity; the SMAS and skin move independently.

Deep plane: The SMAS is released at its attachments to the deep facial ligaments, so the composite moves as a unit. Better suited to more significant laxity, pronounced jowling, and descent of the mid-face. The dissection is more technically demanding and the recovery is somewhat longer.

Mini facelift / lower facelift: Shorter-scar techniques that address the lower third of the face only — jowl and early jawline softening — with limited dissection. Appropriate for early laxity in patients who are not yet candidates for a full deep plane approach.

Thread lift: A non-surgical option using absorbable sutures to lift surface tissue. Not a procedure CFH performs in this context — the results are shorter-lived and the scope of correction is different. Patients asking about thread lifts are generally asking about a different problem than those who need a facelift.

The intake conversation at CFH starts with your anatomy, not a menu. If a mini facelift would genuinely serve you better, the surgeon will say so. The plan you receive in writing is the surgeon's honest read of your specific face.

The lower face and neck are anatomically continuous. The platysma — the muscle responsible for neck banding and softness — is a direct extension of the SMAS system that the deep plane dissection addresses. This is why deep plane facelifts commonly include a neck component, and why the combination produces a more coherent result than treating the two areas separately.

At CFH, if your anatomy warrants addressing the neck alongside the face, that is built into the surgical plan as a single operative logic, not two procedures. Submental liposuction, platysma plication, or a more extensive neck component can each be included where the anatomy calls for it. The plan you receive before committing to surgery will specify exactly what is proposed and why.

For patients whose primary concern is the neck alone — without significant mid-face descent — a submentoplasty or lower facelift is more likely to be the right recommendation. The surgeon will make this distinction at the intake stage.

Deep plane facelift is most appropriate for patients with:

• Significant descent of the mid-face — the nasolabial folds deepen, the malar fat pad falls, and the cheek definition that was present in photographs from ten or fifteen years ago has softened
• Jowling along the jawline that is well established rather than early
• Neck laxity — banding, softening, or loss of the chin-to-neck angle — that accompanies the facial change
• Reasonable skin quality — the skin needs to have enough elasticity to redrape once the deeper tissues are repositioned
• A stable weight for at least three to six months

Deep plane facelift is also performed in men, and accounts for a meaningful proportion of CFH's facelift work. Male facial anatomy — thicker skin, heavier musculature, and different hair distribution around the ears — changes the planning and the incision design. The surgeon addresses this as a matter of anatomy, not as a specialist variant.

Patients who are earlier in the ageing process — with jowling just beginning and mid-face descent that is noticeable but not yet pronounced — may be better served by a less extensive approach. The intake assessment will determine this and the surgeon will give you an honest account of where you sit on that spectrum.

At CFH, deep plane facelift is performed under general anaesthesia and takes between five and six hours. The procedure is done at BHT Clinic, Istanbul — a JCI-accredited facility with on-site intensive care and anaesthesia cover around the clock.

The incisions begin in the temporal hair, continue in front of the ear following the natural crease, loop around the earlobe, and extend behind the ear into the posterior hairline. The exact pattern is adapted to your hair distribution and ear anatomy. A neck component typically adds a small incision beneath the chin.

The dissection proceeds beneath the SMAS layer, releasing the key ligaments that hold the mid-face structures in their descended position. Once released, the composite flap — SMAS, fat, and overlying skin — is repositioned as a unit. The skin closes without tension because the tension has already been borne by the deeper layers.

Dr. M. Aydın, who leads CFH's face and body practice, is the surgeon for deep plane facelift cases. The surgeon who conducts your intake is the surgeon at the operating table. The coordinator stays close on procedure day — the person who arranged your travel and hotel is the person in the corridor.

The first forty-eight to seventy-two hours involve swelling and bruising concentrated around the jaw, neck, and ears. Head elevation, cold application, and a compression garment are standard during this period. Most patients describe this phase as manageable rather than painful — discomfort is typically mild to moderate and addressed with oral analgesia.

By day seven, the majority of visible bruising has faded enough for most patients to move around comfortably without feeling self-conscious. Most patients return to light daily activity within ten days. Visible swelling — noticeable to the patient but generally not remarkable to others — persists for three to four weeks.

The final contour takes twelve months to settle fully. This is normal for a procedure working at the depth of the SMAS layer. The three-month review with Dr. Aydın is the first scheduled checkpoint for assessing progress; the six-month and twelve-month reviews follow.

Operative details at CFH:
- Duration: 5–6 hours
- Anaesthesia: general
- Recovery hotel: 7 nights
- Visible recovery: approximately 10 days
- Full settle: 12 months
- Price band: €8,800 – €11,200

A deep plane facelift addresses structural descent. It does not treat skin texture, pigmentation, fine lines, or volume loss in areas that sit above the plane of dissection — the lips, the periorbital area, or the forehead. Patients who expect a comprehensive surface improvement alongside structural repositioning will find that the face and neck are dramatically changed in some respects and unchanged in others. The surgeon will map this out at the planning stage so the distinction is clear before you commit.

For patients with significant skin laxity but relatively little mid-face descent, a deep plane approach may produce less visible change than expected in the mid-face while delivering good results at the jawline and neck. Anatomy does not always map neatly onto the outcome that looks most compelling in other people's photographs. The intake assessment exists to close that gap.

Swelling after a deep plane facelift is more prolonged than after a mini or lower facelift. Patients who need to look unremarkable for a social or professional event within six weeks of surgery are not good candidates for the timing, regardless of how good the eventual result will be.

The surgeon's job at intake is to give you an honest account of what your specific anatomy will produce — and to tell you if a different procedure, a combined approach, or a different timeline would serve you better.

The intake is a thirty-minute call in your language. No surgical menu is presented. The surgeon listens for what you have noticed — the jaw, the neck, the mid-face — and then reviews your photographs.

Within 48 hours, your matched surgeon signs a written plan that describes the proposed technique, the anatomy that drives it, what the procedure is expected to address, and what it will not change. That plan is yours to read, to question, and to take a second opinion on before you commit.

The surgical fee includes the procedure, general anaesthesia, seven nights at the recovery hotel, and the full post-operative review schedule through twelve months. Consultation carries no fee.

CFH has been in continuous practice since 1994. The facility — BHT Clinic, Istanbul — holds JCI accreditation facility-wide and TEMOS certification for international patient care. Intake is available in eight languages: English, Romanian, Italian, Spanish, French, Albanian, Arabic, and Farsi.