Relevant Anatomy

The human body, but particularly the head and neck region, can be thought of as being composed of multiple layers of tissue of varying strengths stacked upon each other. The outer layer (the skin) if lifted and tightened will appear exactly that way, tightened. It will lack the natural looseness and flexibility of the human face. Furthermore, when used to transmit lifting forces the human skin will eventually stretch and lose its position. If however a deeper layer, more resistant to stretching, is used for the “lifting” component of the face lift, the underlying structures can be altered without tension on the skin giving an unnecessarily tight and drawn appearance. This is the anatomical basis of all modern face lifting techniques.