A midface lift, or cheek lift, focuses on the lower eyelids and the cheek area. Some people will experience more pronounced drooping and sagging in this region even as young as their 30s.
This type of procedure might be right for you if you've ever said:
“Everyone says I’m too young for a facelift.”
“I wish I could get rid of these smile lines.”
“My cheeks and lower eyelids are so hollow.”
The loss of fat in our face and the natural sagging of skin over time leads to heavy smile lines (nasolabial folds) where the cheek and lips meet. This type of facelift requires fewer incisions, less dissection, and less downtime than a traditional facelift where the incisions are made around the ears and hairline.
An early solution
The patient needing a cheek lift is typically younger and hasn't started to notice any sagging in their neck or jowls. Their main complaint is a lack of fullness in the cheek and heavy folds in the middle face. Often, they put off getting an evaluation because they think that they’re too young for a facelift and try chasing the problem away with injectable fillers that create an overfilled and bizarre appearance. We all know someone that unfortunately was steered in this direction. Sometimes with filler fatigue, it all needs to be dissolved to allow for an accurate assessment of someone that needs a cheek lift.
The procedure
A midface lift requires a hidden incision in the lower eyelids and raises the entire cheek complex. This redistributes the soft tissues to a higher location to give a sharper and higher cheekbone, improved volume in the lower eyelid, and removes the heavy folds of the lower cheek. This can also be combined with a lower eyelid blepharoplasty since the dissections are very similar and only a small additional amount of skin of the lower eyelid is usually removed.