Facelift patients almost always ask how long results will last. The answer varies considerably depending on which technique was used. Procedures addressing only the skin’s surface layer tend to produce results that relax within five to seven years as the underlying tissue continues its natural descent. Techniques that work deeper in the face, correcting structural changes at their source, produce outcomes that hold significantly longer. This durability gap forms one of the strongest clinical arguments for the extended deep-plane facelift as practiced by Dr. Andrew Jacono.
The mechanics behind longer-lasting results are anatomical. Facial aging occurs because retaining ligaments stretch, fat compartments shift downward, and the structural supports of the face reposition over decades. Skin tightening addresses none of this at its source, which explains why surface-level procedures fade faster and why the face can look strange rather than youthful when only the skin has been repositioned. The deeper tissue continues descending, creating a mismatch between the treated surface and the untreated structure beneath it.
Why Deep Work Lasts Longer
Dr. Andrew Jacono‘s approach releases the ligaments anchoring descended tissue and repositions the entire composite of skin, fat, and muscle as a single unit to its earlier vertical position. Because the structural supports themselves are moved rather than simply pulled taut, the tissue occupies an anatomically stable new position from which it ages naturally over time. This is what produces results that hold twice as long as surface-level alternatives.
Dr. Andrew Jacono’s published outcomes document results lasting 12 to 15 years, roughly double those of standard SMAS facelift procedures. His 2011 study in Aesthetic Surgery Journal examined 153 patients and confirmed complication rates below industry averages, including a 3.9% revision rate and approximately 1.9% hematoma incidence. Dr. Jacono performs around 250 procedures annually and published a comprehensive textbook in 2021 drawing on more than 2,000 cases, advancing both the practice and the formal teaching of the extended deep-plane method. See related link for more information.
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