u/renokt290

This is a follow-up post on my previous very popular post showcasing my 4 week post deep plane neck and face lift results (https://www.reddit.com/r/Facelift\_Surgery/comments/1tmybvs/4\_weeks\_post\_deep\_plane\_face\_and\_neck\_lift/). Now, I do in general heal very well, so the recovery may take longer for someone else.

Before my surgery, I had a hard time finding day-by-day photos of how face/neck lift recovery looks like, so I made sure to take pictures daily for the first 14 days. I am attaching the resulting collages for anyone who might be interested. All photos until the day 14 one are with no makeup at all.

I also wanted to share some details about the recovery and special things I did / did not do to try to expedite recovery.

Recovery details:

- I had my surgery under general anesthesia. A lot of people are apparently very sleepy / groggy after anesthesia or experience nausea. When I came to, I felt 100% alert and had no fatigue/nausea – but I tend to metabolize anesthesia/medication very quickly. The doctors/nurses said my coming to so quickly and being alert was atypical.

- I characterized my pain as a 4/10 immediately after surgery – just some mild jaw pain. I would say that that is the highest it was throughout the recovery.

- If you have not had surgery under general anesthesia, you might be surprised that there is throat pain / hoarseness after the surgery. This is from the breathing tube they stick down your throat for the anesthesia. It lasted for a few days (maybe 5-ish).

- The only issue I had is a couple of my chin stitches came out after I came home the day of surgery. I messaged my doctor and he said to put some wound closure strips on it until my post op with him the next day.

- I had a post op on days 1, 4, 7 and 9. Days 1 and 4 were just check-ins, though on day 1, my doctor redid my stitches on my chin that had come out. Also on day 1, they take off your bandages and give you an ACE bandage instead to wrap your head. There are no bandages on the incisions after the first day. On day 7, I got my front ear sutures removed. On day 9, I had the rest of the stitches (behind the ear and under the chin) removed.

- You are supposed to wear the chin ACE bandage all the time for 1 week, then can switch to wearing it nightly. My doctor said after 2 weeks, I can stop using it, though I still did it nightly.

- I recovered basically on my own, which was no problem at all, and, honestly, something I preferred, as I do not like people hovering over me. I did have someone with me for the first 24 hours, as required by my surgeon.

- To facilitate healing, I did hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) on days 1, 2 and 3 post surgery. This was my choice, not something required by my surgeon.

- Starting on day 7, I started doing lymphatic drainage massage, and did 5 sessions b/w days 7 and 14. Again, my doctor did not require it, but I highly highly recommend it, as it helps a ton with bruising and swelling. I went to a lady who specializes in post-surgery lymphatic drainage massage; I did not do it myself.

- If you want to do HBOT and lymphatic drainage massage, it's important to budget for those things. Together they cost me a total of $2K-2.5K on top of surgery prices (in CA, where things tend to be more expensive).

- The main pain I had was jaw pain, akin to TMJ pain. It happened mostly at night. It was not sharp pain, but it was rather unpleasant. It lasted for maybe 1.5 weeks, which is longer than I was expecting.

- The first 2-3 days, I had a hard time opening my mouth very wide, which prevented me from eating foods that required a lot of chewing.

- For the first 1-1.5 weeks, I had a weird shrink wrap feeling around my chin/jawline. Basically it felt like I had a chin strap on, even when I did not wearing the chin strap. It was pretty uncomfortable, but went away pretty quickly.

- I washed my hair for the first time on day 5, though I could have earlier according to the surgeon.

- I considered myself presentable by day 8, though I did not go back to work until day 14. Now, the doctor and nurses did say that my recovery was somewhat unusually quick. I like to think some of the things I did to try to improve healing (see below) contributed to this.

- I was driving the first week, as I did not have any issues moving my head and was not taking narcotic medication. If you have difficulty moving your head or are taking the narcos, you are not supposed to drive. Officially, driving is not recommended for the first 2 weeks, but that seemed overkill to me, at least given how my recovery went.

- I took 6 days off work including the surgery day. I went to work remotely on day 8 post surgery, and went back in person on day 14. My job is sedentary and does not require any lifting/activity.

Things I did not expect / was surprised by:

- I had a lowgrade fever around 99-99.5F for the first 5-7 days. It freaked me out at first, but the doctor said it is normal. It is your body’s response to the surgery, and does not indicate infection unless it goes above 100.4F, which mine never did.

- It is difficult to wear glasses post surgery b/c of incisions around the ears. Similarly, ear buds or headphones are a no-go.

- I did not expect the TMJ-like jaw pain I had or not being able to open my mouth very wide initially.

- I was expecting bruising but had very little. I only had a bit of yellow bruising on my cheeks and the back of my neck. In contrast, I had a lot of swelling in my face, especially before I began the lymphatic massage. The massage made this go down substantially.

- The incisions did not hurt at all, since that area is basically numb.

Special things I did / did not do for healing:

- Took oral arnica Minolta and bromelain to reduce swelling/bruising. I highly highly recommend.

- Used an Arnica Minolta ointment and Hirudoid cream for swelling/bruising. Again, highly recommend.

- For the first 2 weeks, I cleaned my incisions with hydrogen peroxide and put aquafor on them. That is the only real care instruction I received. I found the hydrogen peroxide cleaning pretty unpleasant as I dislike blood, but it was not painful at all.

- I did HBOT and lymphatic drainage massage, as described above.

- I increased my protein intake substantially, up to 150-200g or more/day. Protein bars, smoothies and gummies helped me get there.

- I only “slept” on my back the first night after surgery. I cannot sleep on my back at all. The first night, I slept only 1h 20m according to my fitbit. My doctor said that not sleeping on my back would not ruin my result and only recommended sleeping like that for 3-5 days. I had no issues starting to sleep on my side on day 2, other than maybe a bit of ear pain. I arranged pillows so that my ear was not touching the pillow while I slept.

- I basically stayed in bed the first 4 days, with minimal activity. Around days 5-6, I started walking daily, as recommended by my doctor.

- People say that everyone has regrets or get depressed after surgery within the first week or so. I did not think this would happen to me, but I did freak out a bit on day 7 after my first lymphatic massage, when I looked at my face and saw that it was still puffy. I used to have a fat face when I was younger and absolutely don’t want this ever again. Seeing it for awhile initially was pretty triggering, but it did go down and is continuing to go down.

- I iced my face religiously for the first 2 weeks post surgery.

Happy to answer any questions on any of the above material!

I wanted to share some before and after photos following a deep plane face and neck lift. The after is 4 weeks post surgery.

I am almost 42F, which sounds young for this procedure (I thought the same before I had it) but I had the start of a visible turkey neck / platysmal banding, which you can see in the before photo. I had spent a small fortune on minimally invasive procedures to try to fix the problem, but decided in the end to go for what I knew would work.

Happy to share any details about the procedure or recovery for those interested!

EDIT to answer some of the common questions I'm being asked.

The doctor was Dr. Prem Tripathi in the San Francisco Bay area. I am very happy with the whole experience and the result. One thing I really appreciated is that the doctor did not try to push procedures on me. I asked him about other possible complementary procedures, and he straight up said I did not need them.

I paid $30k for the dp face and neck lift. If I had just done an extended contour neck lift, it would have been 20k. Adding a browlift to the face and neck lift would have made it 37k. Disclaimer: I think the prices are not universal, they depend on the individual. If you call the office, they will tell you ballparks, though. The prices include a full face laser, usually 2k. They also normally include fat transfer to the face, but I did not do this (don't want to male my face more puffy, plus doctor said I don't have enough fat).

Recovery was pretty easy. I basically had some jaw pain for maybe 1.5 weeks, akin to tmj pain. It was not bad at all and mostly just at night. I would say I was presentable to the point people would not think I had surgery by day 8. There was some tightness around the chin for maybe 1.5 weeks were it felt like I had a chin strap on even when I didn't, a really weird sensation, but that went away pretty quickly. I still have some numbness around the ears, but it is not uncomfortable and should resolve with time. Otherwise back to normal 100%.

The incisions are around and behind the ears and under the chin. I am using silicon scar strips which should help them fade. The doctor will laser them to help diminish them free of charge, if necessary.

4 weeks post deep plane face and neck lift

Day-by-day recovery for first 14 days post deep plane face & neck lift

4 weeks post deep plane face and neck lift

4 weeks post deep plane face and neck lift

u/renokt290

4 weeks post deep plane face and neck lift

Day-by-day recovery for first 14 days post deep plane face &amp; neck lift

4 weeks post deep plane face and neck lift

4 weeks post deep plane face and neck lift

Day-by-day recovery for first 14 days post deep plane face & neck lift