Fear of a facelift?

It occurred to me while answering a patient’s question. It was a moment of truth, almost an epiphany……….

Patients are afraid of ‘FACELIFT’. Many of my new patients would interrupt me during our first consultation and say, ‘Oh I don’t want a full facelift’. It took me  a while to understand that patients are afraid of a facelift. The question was why? My curiosity led me to asking my patients, ‘Why are you afraid of a facelift?’

I thought I already knew the answer but I was surprised to find the most common answer. My guess was, ‘Doc, I don’t like surgery, I am afraid of such big surgery’. To my utter astonishment the answer was completely different. The most common answer I got was, ‘I don’t want to look different or weird, I don’t want to look like Joan Rivers’.

That gave me an insight to patients’ way of thinking. Most patients have not come across anyone in their personal lives or on TV who had a good natural looking facelift. But most have seen Joan Rivers, Kenny Rogers, Bruce Jenner, Mikey Rourke and the list goes on. These highly publicized Celebrity Plastic Surgery disasters have led the public to believe in two things, ‘Facelift makes you look artificial and it makes you look different than who you are.’

These images are hard to erase from our mind and as a facial plastic surgeon I have to work very hard to convince my patients that I do not want to change their faces but instead turn the clock back by about 10 or 15 years to when they were younger. It is a mission hard to accomplish but using photographs of my patients who have undergone facelifts is a very strong tool in reassuring new potential patients. I also find it very helpful to have my patients watch two of my YouTube Videos below.

Journey of a facelift by Dr. Janjua

2 Weeks after facelift by Dr. Janjua

Dr. Tanveer A. Janjua is a New Jersey based facial plastic surgeon who specializes in facelift, blepharoplasty, rhinoplasty and other facial surgery services.

His main office location in Bedminister, NJ — within easy access from Morris and Somerset County, New Jersey and New York City. For more information or to schedule an appointment, contact us toll-free at 877-JANJUA1.

DISCLAIMER: THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO GIVE A MEDICAL OPINION. TO OBTAIN A MEDICAL OPINION, YOU WILL NEED TO BE EVALUATED IN PERSON. FOR ANY QUESTIONS CALL OUR OFFICE AT 908-470-2600